^  PRINCETON,    N.    J. 


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Shelf... 


Division.. -X,W. 


Section  .. 
Number, 


THE  SHORTER  EPISTLES; 


VIZ: 


OF   PAUL 


GALATIANS;  EPHESIANS;  PHILIPPIANS; 

COLOSSI ANS;    THESSALONIANS;  TIMOTHY; 

TITUS  AND  PHILEMON; 

ALSO, 

OF  JAMES,  PETER,  AND  JUDE. 


BY 


REV.  HENRY  "COWLES,  D.D. 


'All  scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable."— 'Pa.vIj. 


NEW  YORK: 

D.  APPLETON  &  COMPANY, 

549  AND  551  Broadway. 
1879. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1879,  by 

REV.  nENRY  COWLES, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


PREFACE 


To  help  the  reader  of  these  "  Shorter  Epistles,"  I  have  sought 
to  place  each  in  the  sunlight  of  its  own  individual  history,  bring- 
ing all  we  can  learn  of  the  writer  and  of  the  circumstances  of 
his  contemplated  readers  to  bear  upon  the  sense  and  the  force  of 
his  words — to  make  the  former  clear  and  the  latter  impressive. 
Like  all  sensible  letters,  these  also  were  written  for  a  purpose, 
aod  should  be  read  in  the  light  of  that  purpose. — Tt  is  in  these 
epistles  to  the  earliest  churches  that  we  look  for  the  practical 
Christianity  inculcated  by  the  apostles — that  we  see  how  this 
practical  Christianity  was  built  upon  Christ  and  the  staple  truths 
of  his  redemptive  scheme,  and  with  what  spirit  the  founders  of 
those  churches  wrought  for  the  salvation  of  men.  Hence,  some 
of  the  main  points  of  value  in  these  epistles. 

In  them  are  "  some  things  hard  to  be  understood,"  and  others 
that  are  very  easy.  It  has  been  my  policy  to  pass  over  the  latter 
with  few  words — the  more  so  that  I  might  make  time  and  leave 
space  for  careful,  and,  if  need  be,  somewhat  fundamental  discus- 
sion of  points  really  difficult  or  at  least  much  controverted.  This 
policy  will  account  for  the  disproportionate  space  given  to  some 
verses  and  chapters  compared  with  others. 

The  essay  upon  Canon  Farrar's  book — "  Eternal  Hope  " — has 

been  deemed  in  place  in  this  volume,  partly  because  his  doctrine 

has  been  supposed  to  find  its  scriptural  support  very  largely  in 

the  theory  that  Christ  preached  "  Eternal  Hope  "  to  the  spirits 

(iii) 


IV  PREFACE, 

in  prison  (1  Pet.  3:  18-20),  and  not  less  because  the  subject  is 
arresting  much  attention,  and  moreover,  is  intrinsically  vital  to 
human  salvation. 

My  next  volume  (should  a  kind  Providence  still  favor)  will 
include  Paul's  three  longer  epistles; — one  to  Rome;  two  to 
Corinth. 

HENRY  COWLES. 
Oberlin,  Ohio,  July,  1879. 


LIFE  AND  LABORS  OF  PAUL. 


GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

The  best  introduction  to  the  Epistles  of  Paul  is  the 
study  of  the  man. 

Born  very  near  the  Christian  era,  at  Tarsus,  "  no  mean 
city,"  but  chief  in  the  province  of  Cilicia,  and  located  in  a 
wide  and  fertile  plain  on  the  banks  of  the  Cydnus,  his  early 
home  furnished  for  his  youthful  development  the  stimulus 
of  great  natural  beauty,  coupled  with  the  surroundings  of 
commerce,  Greek  culture,  and  contact  with  much  of  the 
best  thought  of  the  age.  Its  location  between  the  great 
center  of  Jewish  mind  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Greek  and 
Roman  civilization  of  Asia  Minor  and  of  Europe  on  the 
other,  suggests  its  special  adaptation  for  the  early  training 
of  this  great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles.  Under  the  Roman 
emperors  it  was  renowned  as  a  place  of  education,  put  by 
Strabo  in  the  same  rank  with  Athens  and  Alexandria,  with 
the  preference  over  even  those  cities  m  the  point  of  the  zeal 
of  its  citizens  for  learning. 

Of  Jewish  parentage — "a  Pharisee  of  the  Pharisees," — 
Saul  was  naturally  sent  to  Jerusalem  to  complete  his  edu- 
cation at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel — than  whom  no  teacher  of 
his  age  stood  higher.  There  Paul's  course  of  study  could 
not  have  omitted  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  while  in  ad- 
dition, every  thing  embraced  in  the  traditions  of  the  elders 
and  the  doctrines  of  the  Pharisees  must  have  been  thor- 
oughly mastered.  Thus  he  became  a  most  zealous  Phari- 
see down  to  the  hour  of  his  conversion,  and  a  powerful 
opponent  of  Pharisaism  ever  after  With  the  entire  atti- 
tude of  Pharisaic  mind  no  man  could  be  more  familiar,  and 
consequently  none  could  be  better  qualified  to  expose  and 
refute  its  errors  and  to  set  before  all  Pharisees  the  purer 
doctrine  and  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  marvel  of  his  life 
is,  that,  with  such  qualifications  for  logically  refuting   the 


2  GENERAL   INTRODUCTION. 

Pharisaism  of  the  Jews,  he  should  have  been  assigned  spe- 
cially by  his  Master  to  mission  work  among  the  Gentiles. 

It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that  Gentile  missions 
e very- w- here  began  in  the  synagogue,  working  on  the  basis 
of  Jewish  faith  and  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures — around  which 
in  every  city,  there  seems  to  have  clustered  a  group  of  de- 
vout Gentile  minds,  in  the  relation,  if  not  of  proselytes,  at 
least  of  inquirers  and  learners — constituting  the  most  hope- 
ful class  for  the  missionary's  earliest  labors.  For  this  work 
Paul  was  pre-eminently  qualified,  and  thus  in  every  city  he 
began. 

Saul  the  Persecutor. 

The  Scripture  record  brings  Paul  to  view  first  as  Saul  the 
persecutor.  In  the  story  of  the  first  Christian  martyr  (Acts 
7  and  8)  he  comes  to  the  front,  active,  ambitious  for  distinc- 
tion, ardent  even  to  the  point  of  madness  and  rage,  "breath- 
ing out  threatening  and  slaughter,"  pushing  his  search  for 
the  hated  sect  even  unto  foreign  cities.  It  was  in  the  height 
of  this  intensely  zealous  and  malign  persecution,  when,  armed 
with  the  official  authority  of  the  Jewish  sanhedrim,  he  was 
approaching  Damascus,  all  suddenly,  this  persecutor  of  all 
Christian  men  became  himself  a  Christian,  and  forthwith  be- 
gan to  preach  the  faith  he  had  thus  far  labored  so  zealously 
to  destroy. 

But  before  we  study  this  astounding,  glorious  revolution 
of  character  and  life,  let  us  note  that  Saul's  experience  as  a 
persecutor  was  part  of  his  training  for  his  gospel  work. 
Ever  after  he  knew  the  heart  of  a  persecutor.  He  could 
readily  fathom  the  motives  and  spirit  of  the  men  who 
hunted  his  life  as  he  had  the  Uves  of  the  same  class  of 
men.  It  was  easy  for  him  to  say  in  his  heart — I  have  been 
where  ye  are  now;  I  can  make  all  the  apology  for  you 
wliich  your  case  admits.  He  could  tell  them  the  story  of 
his  own  wonderful  change.  He  could  pray  with  full  soul 
that  the  same  power  wliich  turned  his  heart  might  turn 
theirs.  We  shall  not  be  likely  to  overestimate  the  inci- 
dental adaptations  for  his  gospel  labor  and  patience  and 
j)rayer  which  were  thus  wrought  into  Paul's  living  experi- 
ence as  toward  his  Jewish  persecutors. 

Saul's  Conversion. 

This  event  is  narrated  first  by  T.uke  (Acts  9) ;  later  we 
have  it  from  Paul  himself,  before  the  Jewish  mob  at  Jerusa- 


GENERAL   INTRODUCTION.  3 

lem  (Acts  22 :  3-16) ;  then  before  Festus  and  Agrippa  at 
Cesarea  (Acts  26:  9-20);  besides  several  references  in  his 
epistles  (1  Tim.  1:  12-16;  1  Cor.  15:  9,  10;  Phil.  3:  4-7). 

Of  the  externals  of  this  scene,  the  salient  points  were, 

the  great  light  and  the  voice  from  heaven.  Both  these  had 
the  effect  to  arrest  and  fasten  his  attention  and  to  awe  his 
spirit  into  reverence,  without  apparently  disconcerting  his 
mind,  or  disturbing  his  self-possession.  The  central  fact 
was  the  manifest  presence  of  Jesus  whom  he  was  persecut- 
ing. The  voice  was  not  of  thunder  to  stun  and  overwhelm, 
but  of  blended  rebuke  and  pity:  ''Why  dost  thou  per- 
secute me?"  What  have  I  done  to  deserve  such  treatment 
at  thy  hands  ?  Besides,  this  rage  of  thine  against  me  reacts 
in  trouble  and  torture  upon  thyself:  "It  is  hard  for  thee 
to  kick  against  the  goads;"  "There  is  no  peace  to  the 
wicked."  The  spirit  of  these  words  was  tender  and  touch- 
ing. The  persecutor  could  not  but  see  at  a  glance  that 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  had  power  and  withal  good  cause  to 
crush  him  into  perdition.  But,  instead  of  this,  strangely 
enough,  this  voice  was  gentle,  compassionate,  loving.  Its 
tones  and  its  spirit  at  once  broke  the  persecutor's  heart. 
Never  had  he  seen  and  felt  the  spirit  of  heaven  before. 
Suddenly  a  new  world  opened  to  his  mental  vision — the 
world  of  love!  Was  it  possible  that  Jesus  whom  he  was  so 
bitterly  persecuting  had  been  shedding  tears  over  his  folly 
and  madness,  and  had  now  met  him  to  speak  these  tender 
words  and  to  turn  his  heart  from  rage  to  gentleness — from 
hate  to  love — from  the  spirit  and  the  work  of  Satan  to  the 
spirit  and  service  of  the  bleeding  Lamb  of  God ! 

Saul's  first  recorded  utterance — "AVho  art  thou.  Lord?" 
brought  the  explanation  of  this  heavenly  vision ;  his  next — 
"Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do?"  was  the  first  indi- 
cation he  gave  of  the  great  change  then  passing  over  his 
soul.  The  Lord  promptly  told  him  what  he  had  for  his 
new-born  servant  to  do ;  and  the  servant  as  promptly  testi- 
fies— "Immediately  I  conferred  not  with  flesh  and  blood;" 
"  I  was  not  disobedient  to  the  heavenly  vision."  From  that 
hour,  to  "preach  Christ  and  him  crucified"  was  his  first 
concern,  the  supreme  labor  of  his  life.  His  Lord  soon 
showed  him  what  he  must  needs  suffer,  yet  neither   then 

nor  ever  after  was  his  purpose  thereby  shaken. Paul  was 

a  man  of  strong  convictions  and  of  unflinching  purpose. 
His  utmost  strength  went  solid  into  this  new  life.  From 
that  hour,  it  was  understood  between  himself  and  his  Lord 


4  GENERAL   INTRODUCTION. 

that  he  gave  his  whole  heart  and  utmost  power  to  the 
Lord's  work,  and  that  his  Lord  in  return  gave  him  moral 
strength  to  the  full  extent  of  his  need.  To  the  latter  point 
some  precious  testimonies  drop  incidentally  from  the  apos- 
tle's pen: "I   can   do  all    things   through  Christ   who 

strengtheneth  me;"  He  said  to  me:  "My  grace  is  sufficient 
for  thee,  for  my  strength  is  made  perfect  in  weakness ;  "  and 
again,  far  on  toward  the  end  of  his  earthly  work:  "I  thank 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  who  empowered  me  " — endued  me  with 
power — "because  he  counted  me  faithful,  putting  me  into 

the  ministry"  (1  Tim.  1:  12). So  Paul  became  mighty 

through  Christ  to  preach  his  gospel  and  to  bear  affliction  for 
his  Master's  sake.  His  gratitude  and  love  to  Christ  would 
allow  him  to  do  nothing  less  or  else ;  his  powers  of  endur- 
ance forbade  his  doing  more.  Thus  he  wore  away  his  life 
in  that  sweetest,  noblest  work  possible  to  man— preaching 
the  everlasting  gospel  in  love  to  his  Lord  and  Savior.  ^ 

The  sources  of  PaiiVs  history,  it  scarcely  need  be  said,  are 
the  pen  of  Luke  in  the  "Acts  of  the  Apostles,"  and  his 
own  pen  in  his  thirteen  acknowledged  epistles — Romans  to 
Philemon  inclusive,  ("Hebrews"  not  included). 

Of  the  great  missionary  work  of  his  life,  the  salient  char- 
acteristics are  these : 

1.  Every- where  and  always,  to  preach  Christ  and  him 
crucified ;  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  long  promised  Messiah  of 
the  Old  Testament  prophets — the  one  only  Savior  of  lost 
men— of  the  Jews  first,  but  also  of  the  Gentiles.  Never 
diverted  really  from  his  one  great  theme ;  promptly  return- 
ing to  it  from 'every  necessary  digression ;  never  weary  of 
"  the  old,  old  story,"  and  with  never  a  feeling  that  it  had  ex- 
hausted itself  upon  his  hand  or  become  tame  to  his  sensibil- 
ity ;  so  he  preached  and  so  he  testified,  and  nowhere,  so  far 
as  the  record  shows,  without  some  fruit  in  souls  won  to  the 
faith  and  the  love  of  the  Crucified. 

2.  He  was  never  quite  happy  to  work  alone.  Either 
because  of  his  strong  social  nature,  or  of  his  physical  frail- 
ties, or  the  conviction  of  better  results  from  associated 
labor,  he  almost  invariably  had  some  fellow-laborer  and 
sometimes  more  than  one  associated  in  his  work.  Barnabas 
was  his  helper  for  a  whole  year  at  Antioch,  and  onward 
tliroughout  his  entire  first  missionary  tour,  until,  at  the 
])oint  of  arranging  for  his  second  tour,  they  parted,  and 
Paul  chose  Silas  (the   "Sylvanus"  of  the  Epistles).     Still 


GENERAL   INTRODUCTION.  5 

later  we  find  Timothy,  Titus,  Luke,  and  others  associated  in 
this  service. 

3.  He  seems  never  to  have  worked  without  a  w^ell-con- 
sidered  plan.  His  time  was  not  scattered  miscellaneously 
or  impulsively.  He  seems  to  have  adjusted  all  his  activities 
to  a  well-defined  method.  Thus,  after  his  first  visit  to 
Antioch  (Acts  11 :  25,  26)  he  made  that  his  base  of  opera- 
tions. That  was  his  great  missionary  home.  From  that 
point  he  fitted  out  for  missionary  tours ;  and  to  that,  the 
tour  having  been  accomplished,  he  returned.  Was  it  the 
hallowed  associations  of  his  first  great  missionary  ordination 
(Acts  13:  1-3)  or  the  demand  in  his  social  nature  for  a 
home  to  come  to  after  certain  years  of  toil ;  or  was  it  the 
moral  strength  he  needed  and  found  in  the  strong  Christian 
hearts  of  that  early  scene  of  gospel  triumphs — we  are,  per- 
haps, left  to  surmise,  under  the  probability  that  most  or  all 
of  these  influences  conspired  to  recommend  and  ensure  this 
plan. 

4.  Of  yet  higher  importance  in  his  plan  of  operations  was 
his  policy  of  seizing  the  best  strategic  points  in  his  Christian 
campaigns — the  great  centers  of  population,  travel,  and  com- 
merce— points  reached  with  comparative  ease  because  they 
were  on  the  great  thoroughfares  of  trade  and  travel,  con- 
nected by  the  marvelous  Roman  roads  of  that  age  and  by 
the  frequent  transit  of  merchant  shijDS.  Such  were  Antioch, 
Ephesus,  Troas,  Philippi,  Thessalonica,  Corinth,  Rome. 
These  points  it  was  his  policy  to  seize  and  to  hold  despite  of 
opposition  and  difficulties.  From  these  he  would  have  the 
gospel  ''sounded  forth"  all  abroad  through  adjacent  regions. 
Thus  the  entire  civilized  world  of  that  age  felt  the  mighty 
impulses  set  in  motion  by  the  energy,  faith,  and  spiritual 
power  of  this  one  great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles. 

5.  Tracing  the  salient  points  of  his  missionary  labors 
chronologically  and  geographically,  with  such  light  as  the 
sacred  record  affords,  we  date  his  conversion  about  A.  D. 
37,  after  which  follows  a  period  of  seven  years,  to  be  filled 
out  from  imperfectly  defined  dates  and  localities.  AYithin 
these  we  must  provide  for  his  flight  from  Damascus  to  Je- 
rusalem and  thence  to  Tarsus;  also  some  three  years  in 
Arabia  (Gal.  1 :  17,  18) ;  another  three  in  Syria  and  Cilicia, 
having  Tarsus  as  his  base  of  operations,  till,  in  A.  D.  44, 
he  is  brought  by  Barnabas  from  Tarsus  to  Antioch  for  one 
year  of  missionary  labor  (Acts  11:  26).  Then  they  go  up 
to  Jerusalem  (A.  D.  45),  bearing  supplies  for  the  sufterei-s 


6  GENERAL    INTRODUCTION. 

from  famine  (Acts  11:  29,  30). During  A.  D.  46  and 

47,  Antioch  is  their  base  of  operations  (Acts  12 :  25  and 
13 :  1).  Then  and  at  this  place  he  was  formally  inducted 
into  his  great  mission  work  among  the  Gentiles,  which,  we 
must  observe,  was  not  his  ordination  to  the  ministry,  but 
was  rather  the  public  indorsement  of  himself  and  Barnabas 
by  the  brethren  at  Antioch,  under  a  special  commission 
from  the  Holy  Ghost  to  the  new  enterjirise  of  preaching  the 
gospel  to  the  Gentiles.  Jewish  feeling  on  this  question 
made  it  important  that  the  enterprise  should  be  distinctly 
and  unquestionably  indorsed,  first  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
then  by  the  approval  of  the  strong  church  gathered  where 
the  disciples  were  first  called  Christians. 

From  this  starting  point  it  is  customary  to  date  Paul's 
great  missionary  tours:  the  first  during  A.  D.  48  and  49 
(Acts  13  and  14),  touching  Seleucia,  Cyprus  (with  its  great 
cities  Salamis  and  Paphos)  ;  thence  Perga  in  Pamphylia ; 
Antioch  in  Pisidia ;  Iconium,  Lystra,  and  Derbe.  Turning 
back,  they  revisit  many  of  these  points,  completing  this  tour 
by  returning  to  Antioch,  their  missionary  center. 

His  second  missionary  tour,  made  with  Silas  (not  Barna-- 
bas)  begun  A.  D.  51,  with  revisiting  and  confirming  the 
churches  of  Syria  and  Cilicia,  thence  south  and  west  to 
Derbe  and  Lystra,  where  Timothy  becomes  their  associate. 
Then  they  traversed  Phrygia  and  Galatia,  and  would  have 
pushed  onward  to  Bithynia  and  the  northern  confines  of 
Asia  Minor,  but  the  Spirit  plainly  indicated  their  course 
into  Europe;  and  first  to  Macedonia.  Leaving  Asia  at 
Troas,  they  crossed  the  Hellespont,  and  soon  found  them- 
selves launched  upon  the  great  European  field,  in  which 
Philippi,   Thessalonica,    Berea,  Athens,  and   Corinth   were 

successively  the  theater  of  their  labors. In  Corinth  Paul 

spent  one  and  a  half  years  (Acts  18:  11),  writing  thence 
his  earliest  known  epistles,  viz.,  those  to  the  Thessalonians 
(A.  D.  52  and  53).  Touching  Ephesus  on  his  return  tour, 
he  pressed  forward  to  be  in  Jerusalem  at  the  Pentecost  of 
A.  D.  54.  Tarrying  there  apparently  only  to  ''salute  the 
church"  (Acts  18:  22),  he  presently  returned  to  Antioch, 
thus  once  more  completing  his  missionary  circuit  (the  sec- 
ond), of  full  three  years'  period. 

Having  spent  some  time  there,  of  indefinite  length,  he 
commenced  his  thii'd  missionary  tour,  revisiting  successively 
the  churches  of  (^alatia  and  IMirygia,  and  then  sat  down  to 
long  and  earnest  work  in  the  great  city  of  Asia — Ephesus — 


GENEKAL    INTRODUCTION.  7 

which  became  the  main  point  of  his  labors  for  the  ensuing 
three  years,  A.  D.  54-57,  as  shown  in  Acts  19  with  Acts 

20:  31. A  great   mob  having  abruptly  terminated  his 

stay  there  (Acts  20:  1)  he  went  thence  into  Macedonia, 
visiting  the  old  localities  in  Greece,  Avhence  planning  once 
more  to  be  in  Jerusalem  at  Pentecost  (Acts  20:  16),  he 
touched  at  Miletus,  the  port  of  Ephesus,  and  met  there  by 
appointment  the  elders  of  the  latter  city,  and  thence  moved 
onward  to  Jerusalem.  Here  he  was  soon  arrested  in  his 
great  missionary  operations,  held  in  durance  at  Cesarea  two 
years  (A.  D.  58-60) ;  was  brought  for  defense  successively 
before  the  Jewish  populace  (Acts  22) ;  then  before  the  san- 
hedrim (Acts  23) ;  then  before  Felix  (Acts  24) ;  and  finally 
before  Festus  and  Agrippa  (Acts  25  and  26) ;  then  in  the 
autumn  of  60  he  was  sent  a  prisoner  to  Rome  (Acts  27  and 
28),  arriving  in  the  spring  of  61.  There,  after  two  years 
of  personal  restraint  "in  his  own  hired  house"  (A.  D.  61- 
63)  the  continuous  sacred  narrative  of  his  missionary  labors 
is  brought  to  its  close  (Acts  28). 

During  this  third  and  last  scripturally  recorded  tour  he 
wrote  a  second  and  large  group  of  his  epistles;  viz.,  that  to 
the  Galatians  from  Ephesus  in  A.  D.  54  or  55 ;  or  as  some 
with  less  authority  suppose,  from  Corinth  late  in  A.  D.  57  ; 
1  Corinthians  from  Ephesus  in  A.  D.  57;  2  Corinthians 
from  Macedonia  in  the  ensuing  summer;  and  that  to  the 
Romans  from  Corinth,  also  in  A.  D.  57.  During  his  con- 
finement at  Rome  about  A.  D.  62,  he  wrote  a  third  group, 
including  Philemon,  Colossians,  Ephesians,  Philippians. 
.  After  these  two  years  at  Rome,  it  is  generally  supposed 
that  he  was  set  at  liberty;  that  he  visited  Macedonia  (Phil. 
2:  24);  and  Asia  Mnor  (Philemon  22)  A.  D.  63;  and  then 
Spain  in  A.  D.  65  according  to  his  expressed  purpose  (Rom. 
15:  24-28);  then  in*  the  summer  of  A.  D.  66,  Asia  Minor 
(1  Tim.  1:3);  and  that  during  A.  D.  67,  he  wrote  1  Timo- 
thy from  Macedonia;  his  Epistle  to  Titus  from  Ephesus; 
wintered  according  to  his  purpose  (Titus  3 :  12)  at  Nicopolis; 
was  imprisoned  at  Rome  late  in  A.  D.  67  or  early  in  A.  D. 
68;  when,  while  in  prison  and  awaiting  his  execution,  he 
wrote  his  last  epistle  (2  Timothy),  and  finally  was  beheaded 
by  order  of  Nero,  in  May  or  June  of  A.  D.  68. 

Authority  for  the  facts  and  dates  of  this  supposed  closing 
period  of  Paul's  life  is  found  in  part  in  his  epistles,  but 
chiefly  in  the  early  Christian  fathers.  His  epistles  to  Tim- 
othy and  to  Titus  and  the  local  allusions  made  in  them  re- 


8  GENERAL   INTRODUCTION. 

fuse  to  be  accommodated  in  any  previous  period  of  his  life. 
Moreover,  there  are  expressed  purposes,  e.  g.,  to  visit  Spain, 
which,  if  ever  carried  into  effect,  must  have  room  after  his 
first  imprisonment  at  Rome. Such  in  substance  is  the  tes- 
timony of  the  Scriptures  as  to  this  hist  supposed  period  of 
his  life. 

The  testimony  of  the  early  Christian  fathers  is  very  ex- 
plicit and  unanimous.  Clement,  a  disciple  of  Paul  (Phil. 
4:  3),  and  afterwards  bishop  of  Rome,  writing  from  Rome 
to  Corinth,  asserts  expressly  that  Paul  had  preached  the 
gospel  in  the  East  and  in  the  West;  that  he  had  instructed 
the  whole  world  in  righteousness  (i.  e.,  the  whole  Roman 
Empire),  and  that  he  had  gone  to  the  extremities  of  the 
AVest  before  his  martyrdom.  This  language  must  be  under- 
stood to  include  Spain. 

Next,  the  ancient  document  known  as  the  Canon  of  Mu- 
ratori,  of  date  about  A.  D.  170,  states  that  Luke  in  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles  omits  the  journey  of  Paul  from  Rome  to 
Spain.  This  assumes  that  such  a  journey  was  supposed  to 
have  been  made. 

Eusebius  says  that  after  defending  himself  successfully  (at 
the  bar  of  Ciesar)  it  is  currently  reported  that  the  apostle 
again  went  forth  to  proclaim  the  gospel,  and  afterwards 
came  to  Rome  a  second  time  and  was  martyred  under  Nero. 
Chrysostom's  words  are  to  the  effect  that  after  his  resi- 
dence in  Rome,  Paul  departed  to  Spain. And  finally  Jer- 
ome represents  that  "Paul  was  dismissed  by  Nero  that  he 
might  preach  Christ's  gospel  in  the  West."^^ 

In  a  case  of  this  sort,  it  seems  legitimate  to  take  account 
of  the  probabilities.  Thus,  the  release  of  Paul  from  his 
first  imprisonment  is  probable  from  the  obvious  fact  that 
his  prosecution,  emanating  from  Jerusalem,  was  weak.  It 
plainly  was  weak  before  Festus  and  Agrippa;  and  weak  as 
to  any  malign  animus  while  he  lived  a  sort  of  prisoner  at 
large  two  full  years  in  his  own  hired  house  at  Rome  waiting 
for  his  appeal  to  come  to  a  hearing.  The  presumption  is 
that  on  this  hearing  no  prosecutor  appeared  and  that  the 

suit  ceased    by  default. The  case   was  totally  different 

when  he  was  next  arraigned  under  the  impulse  of  a  general 
persecution  against  all  Christians  as  enemies  to  tlie  Roman 
state,  not  to  say,  against  mankind. 

As  to  the  reason  why  Luke's  narrative  ends  with  this  first 
imprisonment  at  Rome,  nothing  can  be  known  with  certainty. 
*See  Conybcare  and  Ilowson,  vol.  ii,  pp.  437-439. 


GENERAL   INTRODUCTION.  9 

If,  as  is  suggested  in  my  volume  on  the  "  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews," Luke  was  the  personal  "I"  of  this  epistle,  he  may 
have  gone  as  intimated  there  (13:  19,  23}  to  visit  the  He- 
brew church  gathered  under  his  labors  at  Cesarea,  and  may 
not  have  joined  his  old  associate  until  some  point  in  his 
second  imprisonment  (2  Tim.  4:  11). 

6.  How  Paul  preached  and  how  he  labored  in  the  gospel, 
is  brought  to  view  very  distinctly  in  a  few  recorded  exam- 
ples. We  have  one  discourse  of  his  in  a  synagogue  of  Jews 
at  Antioch  in  Pisidia  (Acts  13) ;  and  at  least  the  substance 
of  a  discourse  to  idolatrous  Gentiles,  viz.,  at  Athens  (Acts 
17) ;  besides  a  less  formal  and  extended  speech  at  Lystra 

(Acts  14:  11-18). Of  his  labors  out  of  the  pulpit  from 

house  to  house,  we  have  his  own  testimony  before  the  elders 
of  the  Ephesian  church  at  INIiletus  (Acts  20:  17-35),  and 
also  in  his  epistles  not  infrequent  allusions  to  his  sufferings, 
prvations,  cares,  burdens,  and  to  his  tender,  tearful,  pray- 
erful spirit.  These  allusions  we  shall  have  frequent  occasion 
to  notice  in  the  study  of  these  epistles. 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  GALATIANS. 


INTKODUCTION. 

The  inquiring  mind,  taking  up  this  Epistle  to  the  Galatians, 
will  ask  who  this  people  were ;  Avhere  they  were  located ; 
but  especially,  what  Paul's  relations  to  them  had  been ; 
what  occasioned  the  writing  of  this  epistle ;  what  were  the 
points  at  issue  between  himself  and  those  churches,  and  how 
he  met  them.  Other  points  of  subordinate  interest  would 
be  the  date  and  'place  of  this  writing.  It  would  also  be  in- 
teresting if  we  might  know  its  immediate  results  upon  those 
churches ;  but  on  this  point  no  definite  historic  knowledge 
has  reached  our  times. 

The  Galatians  take  their  name  from  the  ancient  Gauls  of 
Western  Europe.  A  colony  of  that  people  swept  through 
Europe  from  west  to  east,  some  of  whom  crossed  over  into 
Asia  Minor  as  early  as  the  third  century  before  Christ.  In 
the  apostolic  age  they  had  settled  into  political  relations  as 
a  Eoman  province.  They  were  located  somewhat  centrally 
in  Asia  Minor,  having  the  province  of  Asia  (so-called  then) 
on  the  west ;  Cappadocia  on  the  east ;  Pamphyha  and  Cilicia 

on  the  south;    Bithynia   and   Pontus  on  the   north. It 

need  not  be  assumed  that  the  entire  population  were  of 
Gallic  (Celtic)  origin.  Eather  it  must  be  supposed  that  a 
substratum  of  the  earlier  Phrygian  population  remained, 
coupled  also  with  a  much  more  recent  interspersion  of  Ko- 
mans,  consequent  upon  its  relations  as  a  province  of  the  great 
Roman  Empire.  There  was  also  a  considerable  sprinkling 
of  Jews,  who  were  dispersed  widely  over  those  districts  of 
Asia  Minor.  The  staple  elements  of  this  mixed  population 
were  obviously  Gallic.  It  is  noticeable  that  the  general 
type  of  character  which  appears  in  this  epistle  is  very  dis- 
tinctly fore-indicated  in  their  national  history.  Prof.  Light- 
foot  remarks:  "The  main  features  of  the  Gaulish  character 
are  traced  with  great  distinctness  by  the  Roman  writers. 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

Quickness  of  apprehension,  promptitude  in  action,  great  im- 
pressibility, an  eager  craving  after  knowledge — this  is  the 
brighter  aspect  of  the  Celtic  character.  Inconstant  and 
quarrelsome,  treacherous  in  their  dealings,  incapable  of  sus- 
tained effort,  easily  disheartened  by  failure — such  they  ap- 
pear when  viewed  on  their  darker  side.  Fickleness  is  the 
term  used  to  express  their  temperament."  ("Smith's  Dic- 
tionary," p.  856.) 

The  type  of  their  religious  worship  in  their  pagan  life  in- 
volved intense  superstition  and  passionate  fondness  for  ritual 
observances.  These  traits  of  character  reappear  in  their 
sudden  lapse  from  Christianity  to  the  ritualism  of  the  Juda- 
izing  teachers. 

This  Galatian  population  seems  to  have  resided  in  rural 
districts;  at  least  they  are  nowhere  concentrated  in  large 
commercial  cities.  Sacred  history  makes  no  allusion  to  any 
city,  great  or  small,  but  uniformly  speaks  of  the  Galatian 
"country"  or  ''region,"^  and  never  of  any  metropolitan 
church,  corresj^onding  to  that  of  Ephesus,  or  Corinth,  or 
Antioch,  but  of  "the  churches  of  Galatia"  (1  Cor.  16:  1 
and  Gal.  1 :  2).  Consequently  Paul's  labors  among  them 
were  in  the  form  of  missionary  "touring."  The  history 
alludes  to  two  such  tours,  the  first  (Acts  16 :  6)  in  company 
with  Silas,  and  shortly  after  the  great  Jerusalem  Council 
(about  A.  D.  50),  in  the  earlier  stages  of  what  is  commonly 
reckoned  his  second  great  missionary  circuit;  the  second 
(Acts  18:  23)  about  three  years  later  (A.  D.  54),  early  in 
his  third  missionary  journey.  How  much  time  he  spent 
among  them  in  either  tour  is  not  indicated.  It  does  appear, 
however,  that  the  people  received  him  with  w'arm  cordiality 
and  his  message  with  great  promptness  and  hopefulness. 
Paul's  expectations  w^ere  manifestly  high  and  strong;  his 
disappointment,  therefore,  was  great  and  his  grief  deep  when 
he  found  them  so  soon  lapsed  from  the  faith  they  had  wel- 
comed so  warmly. 

This  brings  us  to  the  great  fact  which  is  central  to  their 
entire  history  and  pivotal  to  our  epistle,  viz.,  that  Judaiz- 
ing  emissaries  had  gone  among  them,  teaching  that  they 
must  ])e  circumcised  and  must  needs  observe  the  entire  rites 
of  the  Mosaic  system  as  conditions  of  salvation.  Such  were 
the  men  described  (Acts  15  :  1)  whose  doctrine  and  preach- 
ing gave  occasion  to  the  celebrated  Council  at  Jerusalem. 
"They  came  down  from  Judea"    (i.  e.,  to  Antioch)  "and 

*  ;\;w/ja. 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

taught  the  brethren,  Except  ye  be  circumcised  after  the 

manner  of  Moses,  ye  can  not  be  saved." The  continued 

observance  of  circumcision,  and  its  connected  Mosaic  rites, 
in  the  case  of  Jewish  converts,  was  sufficiently  perilous, 
having  a  constant  tendency  to  foster  an  undue  dependence 
on  what  was  merely  external ;  yet  those  converts  might  re- 
ceive Christ  by  faith  and  remain  firm  in  their  reUance  upon 
him  only.  Many  seem  to  have  done  so.  Out  of  deference 
to  their  ancient  and  strong  veneration  for  Moses,  the  forms 
of  his  system  had  been  tolerated  in  the  case  of  Jewish  con- 
verts. But  when  converts  of  Gentile  antecedents  were 
thrown  upon  circumcision  and  the  Mosaic  rites  as  essential  to 
their  salvation,  this  new  doctrine  must  naturally,  almost  nec- 
essarily, strike  at  the  very  foundations  of  the  whole  Chris- 
tian system.  It  must  tend  powerfully  to  supplant  Christ 
and  his  cross,  to  put  in  his  stead  a  reliance  upon  merely  ex- 
ternal observances.  To  hold  that  Christ  is  insufficient  with- 
out circumcision  is  to  put  Christ  below  circumcision,  and, 
of  course,  to  make  circumcision  more  really  essential  and 
fundamental  than  Christ.  This  subverts  the  whole  gospel 
scheme. 

The  quick  eye  of  Paul  saw  this  peril.  He  knew  enough 
of  Judaism  and  of  the  rituahstic  spirit  of  the  Pharisee  to 
see  in  this  a  vital  issue — a  question  of  life  and  death  to  the 
soul.  Hence  he  met  this  issue  in  this  epistle  with  intense 
feeling  and  with  his  utmost  energy.  The  entire  epistle 
labors  this  one  great  pomt  only ;  has  entire  unity  from  be- 
ginning to  end ;  makes  every  word  bear  upon  this  one 
momentous  question,  and  bear,  moreover,  with  tremendous 

logical  force. As  his  own  apostolic  authority  had   been 

assailed,  he  first  defends  himself  on  this  point,  maintaining 
throughout  the  first  two  chapters  that  his  apostolic  authority 
is  second  to  none  other ;  that  he  held  his  commission  from 
Christ  himself,  and  could  by  no  means  yield  for  a  moment 

to  the  insinuations  and  charges  of  his  Jewish  opponents. 

Then  in  the  two  next  chapters  (3d  and  4th)  he  argues  the 
great  question  of  salvation  by  faith  in  Christ  as  against  the 
Judaizers'  doctrine  of  salvation  by  works  of  law.  To  adapt 
this  argument  to  Jewish  mind,  its  proofs  are  drawm  mainly 
from  their  own  Scriptures,  and  especially  from  the  history 
of  Abraham,  the  revered  father  of  their  nation.  It  is 
shown  that  he  was  justified  by  faith  alone — not  by  works; 
and  that  the  covenant  which  God  made  with  him  and  his 
posterity  was  altogether  on  the  basis  of  promise  which  called 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

for  faith  and  said  nothing  at  all  about  works  of  law  as  the 
ground  of  acceptance  with  God.  Setting  works  of  law  thus 
aside  Paul  knew  would  raise  the  question:  AVhat  then  is 
the  use  of  law?  to  which  he  replies:  To  convince  men  of 
sin ;  of  the  hopelessness  of  salvation  on  the  ground  of  per- 
fect obedience,  and  therefore  of  their  need  of  a  Redeemer 
who  has  redeemed  believers  from  the  curse  of  the  law  by- 
assuming  and  bearing  a  curse  in  his  own  crucified  body. 

Collateral  arguments  and  illustrations  fill  a  subordinate  but 
useful  place.  The  details  of  Paul's  great  argument  will  ap- 
pear in  the  notes. 

The  epistle  closes  with  two  chapters  of  very  practical  bear- 
ing— to  show  that  nothing  else  but  the  gospel  scheme  of  sal- 
vation by  faith  in  Christ,  working  in  the  power  of  the  Holy- 
Ghost,  ever  brings  forth  the  fruits  of  holiness;  that  circum- 
cision and  works  of  law,  done  for  justification,  never  did  and 
never  can  rise  above  the  fleshly  elements  of  selfishness  and 
moral  corruption,  and  therefore  must  be  discarded  as  power- 
less toward  real  purity  of  heart  and  life,  and  consequently, 
toward  acceptance  before  God. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  moral  scope  of  this  epistle  is  of 
the  highest  order;  that  it  deals  with  the  greatest  and  most 
vital  questions  pertaining  to  human  salvation ;  that  though 
its  particular  issues  over  circumcision  and  the  rites  of  the 
Mosaic  system  are  in  that  form  no  longer  living  questions, 
yet  in  their  nature  and  bearing  upon  what  really  constitutes 
the  gospel  system,  that  old  question  still  lives,  pregnant  with 
great  and  glorious  truth  for  all  the  ages  to  the  end  of  time. 

One  other  question,  germain  to  this  introduction,  should 
be  noticed,  viz..  The  date  and  place  of  the  writing  of  this 
epistle.  The  importance  of  these  points  is  not  great,  yet 
they  have  some  interest.  Unfortunately,  the  data  for  posi- 
tive conclusions  are  unusually  limited.  Internal  evidence 
from  the  epistle  itself  is  singularly  deficient.  No  saluta- 
tions are  sent  from  parties  present  with  the  writer;  no  allu- 
sions are  made  to  his  own  personal  surroundings;  nothing  is 
liere  to  indicate  ivhere  he  was,  nor  with  any  certainty  u'hen 
he  wrote.  He  says  (1:  6) — "I  marvel  that  ye  are  so  soon 
removed  from  him  that  called  you  into  the  grace  of  Christ 
unto  another  gospel;" — which  favors  the  opinion  that  at 
this  writing,  no  long  time  had  ela])sed  since  his  last  visit. 

Again,  the  strong  similarity  of  general  scoj)e  between 

this  epistle  and  that  to  the  Konians  has  been  thought  to  in- 
dicate that  they  were  written  near  the  same  time;   but  this 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

is  of  small  account.  For  what  forbids  that  Paul  should 
have  had  the  same  views  of  the  gospel  scheme  in  its  rela- 
tions to  the  covenant  of  works  throughout  all  his  Christian 
life? 

Two  theories  as  to  date  and  place  divide  the  critics :  one 
maintained  by  Conybeare  and  Howson,  in  their  "  Life  and 
Epistles  of  Paul,"  that  it  was  written  from  Corinth,  late  in 
A.  D.  57;  the  other,  that  of  Ellicott  and  others,  that  he 
wrote  it  from  Ephesus,  near  the  commencement  of  his  three 
years'  labor  there;  i.  e.,  in  A.  D.  54  or  55.  This  supposes 
the  time  to  have  been  really  short  after  his  second  tour 
among  those  Galatian  churches.  The  probabilities  seem  to 
be  mainly  in  favor  of  this  latter  opinion.  The  strength  of 
critical  judgment  sustains  it. 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  GALATIANS. 


CHAPTER  I 


The  briefest  possible  introduction  sets  forth  the  writer's  high 
commission  as  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  and  of  God  the  Father 
(v.  1);  bears  the  customary  salutation  of  grace  aud  peace  (v.  2); 
traces  these  blessings  to  the  great  atoning  sacrifice  of  Christ  for 
our  sins  coupled  with  its  ultimate  purpose  to  deliver  human 
souls  from  sin  no  less  than  from  condemnation  under  law  (v.  3- 
5);  then  promptly  brings  out  the  great  occasion  for  this  writing, 
viz.,  the  sudden  lapse  of  some  at  least  of  the  Galatian  converts 
unto  another  gospel  (v.  6,  7),  which  "other  gospel"  and  all  its 
authors  and  abettors,  Paul  most  earnestly  denounces  (v,  8,  9) ; 
and  then  proceeds  to  defend  himself  against  his  traducers,  assert- 
ing the  divine  authority  of  his  mission  and  teachings  (v.  10-12); 
appealing  to  his  Pharisaic  life  (v.  13,  14),  his  conversion  and 
subsequent  history  (v.  15-24). 

1.  Paul,  an  apostle,  (not  of  men,  neither  by  man,  but  by 
Jesus  Christ,  and  God  the  Father,  who  raised  him  from  the 
dead;) 

2.  And  all  the  brethren  which  are  with  me,  unto  the 
churches  of  Galatia: 

It  was  entirely  vital  to  the  object  of  this  epistle  that  Paul 
should  vindicate  his  divine  mission  as  an  apostle.  The  case  re- 
quired him  to  speak  with  authority,  and  of  course  demanded,  first 
of  all,  that  this  authority  should  be  traced  to  its  source  in  his 
direct  commission  from  God.  Hence  this  stands  in  the  very 
front  of  the  letter — in  its  first  words :  I,  Paul,  am  sent  forth  as 
an  apostle  with  authority  and  commission,  not  from  men  in  any 
remote  sense,  as  the  ancient  priests  held  ofl&ce  by  their  birthright 
from  Aaron;  riot  by  man — by  anyone  man's  special  authority; 
but  directly  and  only  as  one  commissioned  by  Jesus  Christ;  and 
yet  farther  back,  by  God  the  Father  who  in  raising  Jesus  from 
the  dead  had  fully  indorsed  him  as  his  own  eternal  Son — the  ap- 
pointed Redeemer  of  lost  men, All  the  brethren  now  with  me 

unite  in  this  Christian  salutation;  probably  he  would  imply — in 

the  contents  and  spirit  of  this  epistle.- Who  these  brethren 

were  can  not  now  be  known  with  certainty.     If  we  could  deter- 
mine the  question  of  place  between   Corinth  and  Ephesus,  we 

(17) 


18  GALATIANS. — CHAP.    I. 

might  approximate  toward  the  answer  to  this  question.  In  this 
uncertainty  it  must  suffice  to  say  that  the  Galatian  brethren 
doubtless  knew  where  Paul  was  at  this  writing,  and  what  fellow- 
laborers  were  there  with  him. See  on  this  point  the  closing 

paragraphs  of  the  introduction. 

3.  Grace  he  to  you,  and  peace,  from  God  the  Father,  and 
from  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 

4.  Who  gave  himself  for  our  sins,  that  he  might  deliver 
us  from  this  present  evil  world,  according  to  the  will  of  God 
and  our  Father : 

5.  To  whom  be  glory  for  ever  and  ever.     Amen. 

"Grace"  is  the  comprehensive  word  for  the  love  of  God  mani- 
festing itself  in  the  salvation  of  men;  while  "peace"  best  applies 
to  the  resulting  blessedness  which  comes  from  the  reception  of 

God's  mercies. May  this  divine  love  be  richly  manifested  in 

your  behalf,  and  may  the  consequent  fruits  of  peace — all  spirit- 
ual blessings — abound  to  your  souls. 

These  blessings  come  from  God  the  Father  and  from  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  of  whom — let  it  be  distinctly  said — "He  gave  him- 
self a  sacrifice  for  our  sing  " — a  fact  lying  at  the  very  center 
of  this  gospel  scheme,  yet  a  fact  utterly  left  out  from  the  Juda- 
izing  scheme — that  "other  gospel"  which  is  yet  no  gospel,  but 
into  which  ye  have  been  seduced  to  your  great  peril.  Moreover, 
Christ  gave  himself  for  us  to  do  what  circumcision  and  works  of 
law  never  can  do — viz.,  "deliver  us  from  this  present  evil 
world" — which  comprehensively  includes  all  the  powers  of  sin 
and  of  temptation.  From  all  these,  the  mission  and  sacrifice  of 
Christ  both  can  and  will  deliver  us.  For  this  result,  that  mission 
and  sacrifice  have  the  indorsement  of  the  Father's  will,  to  whom 
therefore  be  glory  forever ! 

6.  I  marvel  that  ye  are  so  soon  removed  from  him  that 
called  you  into  the  grace  of  Christ  unto  another  gospel: 

7.  Which  is  not  another ;  but  there  be  some  that  trouble 
you,  and  would  pervert  the  go.spel  of  Christ. 

Surprise  and  even  astonishment  break  forth  from  Paul's  bur- 
dened heart.  Can  it  be  that  so  soon  after  your  warm  and  most 
hopeful  reception  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  ye  are  turning  your- 
selves away  (so  the  Greek)  from  him  who  hath  called  you — not 
precisely  into  the  grace  of  Christ,  but  m  and  through  (by  means 
of)  Christ's  precious  grace — unto  another  and  totally  different 
gospel — not  another  one   of  the   same   general  character  which 

might  subserve  the  same  ultimate  end  of  saving  the  soul  ? For 

the  sense  of  this  word  another*  (see  Mark  IG:  12) — "After  that 
he  appeared  in  another  form" — a  very  different  one;  and  Luke 
U:  29:  "As  he  prayed  the  aspect  of  his  countenance  became 
another''  (Greek) — i.e.,  entirely  different;  suddenly  changed. 

■•■•  'tTSfiOV. 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.    I.  19 

Most  emphatically  Paul  declares :  This  is  not  another  gospel,  in 
any  good  sense  of  the  word  gospel ;  for  it  is  really  no  gospel  at 
all,  but  only  a  delusion,  well  adapted  to  delude  men  to  their  de- 
struction. It  is  brought  among  you  by  men  who  are  troubling 
your  minds  with  this  novel  and  pernicious  notion,  seeking  to  per- 
vert the  true  gospel  of  Christ. 

8.  But  though  we,  or  an  angel  from  heaven,  preach  any 
other  gospel  unto  you  than  that  which  we  have  preached 
unto  you,  let  him  be  accursed. 

9.  As  we  said  before,  so  say  I  now  again,  If  any  man 
preach  any  other  gospel  unto  you  than  that  ye  have  received, 
let  him  be  accursed. 

But  even  if  (his  word  representing  the  case  as  barely  supposa- 
ble),  if  we,  or  an  angel  from  heaven,  were  to  preach  a  different 
gospel  from  this  we  have  preached  to  you,  let  him  be  accursed ! 
There  is  no  place  for  another !  No  other  can  be  supposed  pos- 
sible!  This    strong,  decisive    language  fully  assumes  that  in 

Paul's  conviction,  the  gospel  he  preached  was  the  very  truth  of 
God,  too  pure  and  perfect  to  admit  of  being  superseded  by  any 
thing  better,  or  even  improved  by  any  thing  newer.  Moreover, 
he  knew  that  he  had  not  only  received  this  gospel  from  God, 
but  had  taught  it  substantially  as  it  was,  in  accordance  with  the 
facts  of  the  case.  There  was  no  room  open  for  other  teachers, 
coming  after  him,  to  teach   this  gospel  otherwise   than  he   had 

taught,  with  any,  even  the  least  improvement, "As  we   said 

before" — when  myself  and  my  associates  were  with  you  in  per- 
son, preaching  this  gospel.  The  word  "before,"  and  the  refer- 
ence to  others  associated  with  him,  taken  in  antithesis  with 
what  he  himself  ("I")  says  now,  plainly  indicate  an  allusion 
to  their  oral  preaching  on  his  last  visit  among  them.  They  had 
said  the  same  thing  then ;  he  himself  reaffirms  it  most  solemnly 
— and  as  his  Greek' words  imply  with  heightened  emphasis — now. 
"Anathema"  is  Paul's  own  word,  transferred  (not  transla- 
ted)— its  sense  being  —  one  abhorred,  reprobated  of  God,  falling 
under  his  awful  frown, 

10.  For  do  I  now  persuade  men,  or  God?  or  do  I  seek  to 
please  men?  for  if  I  yet  pleased  men,  I  should  not  be  the 
servant  of  Christ. 

"Persuade"  is  not  the  best  word,  for  it  comes  short  of  the  real 
sense — which  is :  Am  I  working  in  the  interests  of  men,  or  of 
God  ?  Am  I  doing  work  for  men,  or  for  God  ?  Do  I  plead  in  be- 
half of  men,  or  of  God  ?  Who  is  my  acknowledged  master  whose 
pleasure  is  my  motive  and  whose  work  is  my  joy?  Ye  can  cer- 
tainly understand  this  point ;  Am  I  seeking  to  please  men  ?  If  I 
were  yet  pleasing  men  as  I  was  doing  in  my  Pharisaic  life,  I  could 

not  be  the  servant  of  Christ, We  must  not  forget  that  Paul's 

Pharisaic  life  was  essentially  the  same  in  its  spirit,  motive  and 
bearing,  as  the  life  of  these  Judaizing  teachers  whose  influence 


20  GALATIANS. — CHAP.    I. 

upon  the  Galatian  converts  he  is  now  comT3atting.  Hence  these 
allusions  to  himself  had  also  a  side-bearing  upon  them. 

11.  But  I  certify  you,  brethren,  that  the  gospel  which  was 
preached  of  me  is  not  after  man. 

12.  For  I  neither  received  it  of  man,  neither  was  I  taught 
it,  but  by  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Thus  Paul  reiterates  and  reaffirms  the  vital  point  with  which  this 
letter  opens  (v.  1),  viz.,  that  the  gospel  he  had  preached  never 
came  to  him  from  man,  but  from  God  only.  I  never  learned  it 
(he  says)  of  man.  I  sat  at  Gamaliel's  feet  to  learn  my  Judaism; 
but  at  no  man's  feet  to  learn  my  Christianity.  All  this  I  received 
from  Jesus  Christ  himself  by  immediate  revelation.  Him  I  met 
face  to  face ;  his  voice  came  into  my  ears ;  from  him  only  did  I 
originally  learn  this  gospel,  and  from  him  came  my  commission 

to  preach  it. These  points  became  doubly  vital  to  the  purpose 

of  this  epistle  because  those  Judaizers  had  been  traducing  his 
apostolic  authority,  representing  that  he  preached  only  a  second- 
hand gospel;  was  never  in  the  school  of  Christ;  was  not  one  of  • 
the  twelve  disciples.  These  points,  whether  put  forward  openly 
or  by  implication  and  insinuation,  Paul  felt  it  incumbent  upon 
himself  to  meet  squarely. 

13.  For  ye  have  heard  of  my  conversation  in  time  past  in 
the  Jews'  religion,  how  that  beyond  measure  I  persecuted 
the  church  of  God,  and  wasted  it: 

14.  And  profited  in  the  Jews'  religion  above  many  my 
equals  in  mine  own  nation,  being  more  exceedingly  zealous 
of  the  traditions  of  my  fathers. 

For  ye  must  have  heard  what  I  am  now  obliged  to  repeat — as  to 
my  early  life  in  the  Jewish  religion.  (The  word  "  conversation  " 
is  in  the  now  obsolete  sense — one's  manner  of  life,  the  whole  drift 
and  tenor  of  it).  Ye  know  I  was  then  persecuting  the  church  of 
God  with  extreme,  excessive,  and  even  malignant  zeal ;  I  Avas 
making  it  desolate,  doing  my  utmost  to  destroy  it. 

"Profited"  in  Judaism; — but  "profited"  is  not  the  best  word 
now  for  Paul's  meaning.  This  is  better  expressed  by  proficiency 
than  by  profit.  Certainly  he  docs  not  mean  that  he  found  or  made 
any  profit  in  it,  either  to  himself  or  to  others.  The  word  he  used 
suggests  that  he  struck  forward.  The  action  of  the  oarsman, 
putting  each  stroke  in  advance,  and  thus  dashing  on,  seems  to 

underlie  the  etymology  and  significance  of  the  Greek  word.* 

I  was  thus  striking  ahead  of  many  of  my  own  age  in  my  nation 

— the  word  "equals"  touching  only  the  point  of  age. Being 

excessively  zealous  for  the  traditions  of  the  fathers  of  my  people. 
This  was  the  iinimus  of  the  Pharisaism  of  "Tliat  day — devotion  to 
traditionary  lore  under  which  they  made  void  even  the  law  of  God. 

*7r/>0K0  TTTW. 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.  I.  21 

What  Christ  brino-g  against  them  as  their  capital  error  (Matt.  15 : 
6  and  Mark  7:  13),  Paul  here  confesses  to  have  been  the  very 
soul  of  the  system. 

15.  But  when  it  pleased  God,  wlio  separated  me  from  my 
mother's  womb,  and  called  me  by  his  grace, 

16.  To  reveal  his  Son  in  me,  that  I  might  preach  him 
among  the  heathen ;  immediately  I  conferred  not  with  flesh 
and  blood : 

17.  Neither  went  I  up  to  Jerusalem  to  them  which  were 
apostles  before  me ;  but  I  went  into  Arabia,  and  returned 
again  unto  Damascus. 

Noticeably,  Paul  sees  the  final  cause  of  his  own  conversion  in 
the  good  pleasure  of  God.  Even  from  his  mother's  womb,  God 
liad  set  him  apart — had  fixed  his  eye  and  hand  upon  him  and 
put  him  in  unconscious  training  for  his  life-work.  In  due  season, 
God  had  called  him  through   his  grace — by  virtue  of  his  loving 

good  pleasure,  merely  and  only. "To  revieal  his  Son  u-iihin 

me" — better  than  merely  "in" — i.  e.,  to  my  inner  soul,  speaking 
to  my  very  heart;  to  the  end,  moreover,  that  I  might  preach  him 

among  the  Gentiles. Straightway,  on  hearing  this  voice  from 

God,  through  his  revealing  Son,  I  held  no  consultation  with  frail 
mortals — "flesh  and  blood"  representing  men  as  contrasted  with 
God,  and  moreover,  considered  as  frail,  imperfect,  unreliable. 
The  exact  sense  of  this  phrase — "flesh  and  blood" — considered 
as  authority  for  truth  revealed,  may  be  seen  in  Christ's  words  to 
Peter  (Matt.  16:  17):  "Flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed  this 
unto  thee,  but  my  Father  Avho  is  in  heaven."  Alike  Peter  and 
Paul  were  not  taught  by  "flesh  and  blood."  Paul  declined  to 
Beck  such  instruction ;  Peter  did  not  have  it. Ye  might  sup- 
pose (Paul  would  intimate)  that  I  should  hasten  at  once  to  place 
myself  under  the  instruction  of  the  apostles,  long  time  before 
me  in  the  school  of  Christ.  I  did  no  such  thing;  but  went  at 
once  away  from  Damascus  into  Arabia ;  and  when  I  returned,  it 

was  not   to  Jerusalem  but  to   Damascus. Precisely  to  what 

part  of  vast,  indefinite  Arabia  Paul  went  has  never  been  ascer- 
tained. As  to  his  special  object  in  going  we  are  left,  perhaps, 
mainly  to  conjecture,  save  that  the  scope  of  argument  here  sug- 
gests strongly  that  he  turned  entirely  away  from  Jerusalem,  and 
away  from  all  contact  with  apostles  and  the  earlier  Christians,  to 
spend  time  in  communion  with  God,  and  to  realize  that  discipline 
of  prayer  and  meditation,  coupled  with  special  revelations  from 
God,  whicli  would  prepare  him  for  his  great  life-work.  Whether 
he  was  moved  toAvard  this  preparatory  school  by  the  example  of 
Moses  and  Elijah,  each  of  whom  had  experience  in  the  solitudes 
of  Arabia,  we  can  only  conjecture. 

18.  Then  after  three  years  I  went  up  to  Jerusalem  to  see 
Peter,  and  abode  with  him  fifteen  days. 

2 


22  GALATIANS. — CHAP.   I. 

19.  But  other  of  the  ajiostles  saw  I  none,  save  James  the 
Lord's  brother. 

The  three  years  spent  there,  date  probably  from  tlie  time  of 
his  conversion. — "To  see  Peter";  but  Paul's  word  "see"  con- 
templates making  his  personal  acquaintance.  The  older  manu- 
scripts give,   "to  make   the   acquaintance  of  Cephas,"  using  his 

Aramean   rather   than    his   Roman   name. One  reason  for  so 

short  a  stay  may  perhaps  be  indicated  in  Acts  9:  29:  "They 
went  about  to  slay  him."  However  long  he  might  otherwise 
have  remained,  considerations  of  personal  safety  cut  short  his 
visit  so  that  he  could  show  the  Galatian  brethren  that  he  did  not 
receive  his  knowledge  of  the  gospel  scheme  from  Peter,  nor  in- 
deed from  any  other  of  the  prominent  gospel  teachers.  He  saw 
none  other  but  James,  whom  Luke's  history  continually  locates 
at  Jerusalem. 

As  to  the  very  complicated  question  of  the  identity  of  this  James, 
see  the  discussion  in  my  introduction  to  the  Epistle  of  James. 

20.  Now  the  things  which  I  write  unto  you,  behold,  before 
God,  I  lie  not. 

This  affirmation  of  his  own  veracity,  implying  the  solemn  oath, 
suggests  painfully  that  those  Judaizing  teachers  had  not  scrupled 
to  charge  the  apostle  with  falsehood. 

21.  Afterwards  I  came  into  the  regions  of  Syria  and 
Cilicia; 

22.  And  was  unknown  by  face  unto  the  churches  of  Judea 
Avhich  were  in  Christ : 

These  regions  became  the  theater  of  his  early  missionary  tours, 
being  adjacent  to  Tarsus,  his  birthplace,  and  to  Antioch,  where 
he  and  Barnabas  spent  a  full  year  in  very  successful  gospel  labors 
(Acts  11:  25,  20).  But  to  the  churches  of  Judea  he  remained 
personally  unknown.  They  were  hearing  from  time  to  time  by 
current  report  that  he  who  was  formerly  their  most  virulent  per- 
secutor was  then  preaching  the  faith  he  had  sought  to  uproot; 
and  they  gave  God  the  glory  for  this  marvelous  conversion. 

23.  But  they  had  heard  only.  That  he  which  persecuted  us 
in  times  past  now  preacheth  the  faith  which  once  he  destroyed. 

24.  And  they  glorified  God  in  me. 

The  purpose  of  the  apostle  in  giving  so  much  personal  history, 
we  should  bear  in  mind,  was  to  show  how  little  he  had  learned 
from  the  other  apostles  and  how  exclusively  his  api)st()lic  training 
had  come  by  direct  revelation  from  (liod.  It  were  unpardonable  to 
attribute  this  showing  to  any  vainglory — to  any  desire  to  exalt 
himself  in  comparison  with  the  twelve  original  apostles.  Public 
duty  compelled  him  to  refute  the  slanders  of  uhmi  who  were  tra- 
ducing his  name  and  influence  before  the  Galatian  churches  and 
to  sustain  his  apostolic  authority  that  he  might  save  those 
churches. 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.    II.  23 


CHAPTER    II. 

Paul  concludes  his  statement  of  personal  history,  showing  par- 
ticularly what  transpired  during  his  visit  at  Jerusalem  ;  how  the 
question  of  circumcising  Titus  became  a  test  case  (v.  1-3) ;  how 
Judaizing  men,  even  then,  were  alert  and  inquisitive  (v.  4,  5) ;  how 
he  withstood  them  (v.  6) ;  how  the  favor  of  God,  manifested  upon 
his  labors  among  the  Gentiles,  won  for  him  the  confidence  and 
indorsement  of  the  leading  apostles  (v.  7-10) ;  that  he  withstood 
even  Peter  at  Antioch  for  his  concessions  to  the  Judaizers  against 
his  previous  policy  and  despite  of  his  real  convictions  (v.  11-13); 
recites  his  argument  with  Peter  (v.  14-16),  and  debates  the  main 
question  between  salvation  by  works  of  law  and  salvation  by  the 
cross  of  Christ  (v.  17-21). 

1 .  Then  fourteen  years  after  I  went  up  again  to  Jerusalem 
with  Barnabas,  and  took  Titus  with  me  also. 

When?  Fourteen  years,  reckoned  from  what  point?  With 
little  doubt,  from  the  point  of  his  conversion,  this  portion  of  his 
life  being  that  which  he  is  reporting  to  his  Galatian  brethren. 
He  thinks  it  important  to  show  them  in  considerable  detail  where 
and  how  this  time  was  spent  in  order  to  refute  the  slanders  of 
those  Jews  who  had  traduced  his  apostleship. This  visit  to  Je- 
rusalem is  manifestly  the  same  which  Luke  has  recorded  (Acts 
15),  where  the  very  question  pending  between  Paul  and  his 
Galatian  converts  was  brought  before  the  apostles  and  elders; 
viz.,  whether  converts  from  the  Gentiles  must  needs  be  circum- 
cised and  subjected  to  the  entire  law  of  Moses  as  conditions  of 
salvation. 

2.  And  I  went  up  by  revelation,  and  communicated  unto 
them  that  gospel  which  I  preach  among  the  Gentiles,  but 
privately  to  them  which  were  of  reputation,  lest  by  any 
means  I  should  run,  or  had  run,  in  vain. 

This  special  direction  from  the  Spirit  indicates  that  the  ques- 
tion at  issue  was  of  vital  moment. There,  said   Paul,  I  laid 

before  the  brethren  the  gospel  I  was  preaching  to  Gentiles,  i.  e., 
on  the  point  then  specially  pending — that  of  circumcising  Gentile 
converts  and  subjecting  them  to  the  law  given  through  Moses.  I 
did  this  privately  to  the  leading  men,  adopting  this  method  lest  I 
should  fail  of  success  in  my  gospel  work.  The  force  of  Jewish 
prejudice  was  so  great  that  I  found  it  necessary  to  move  carefully 
and  carry  the  convictions  of  their  leaders  before  the  fanaticism 
of  the  populace  should  be  aroused  and  diverting  influences  set  in 
too  powerfully  to  be  controlled  by  reason.  This,  let  us  notice, 
was  not  at  all  a  time-serving  policy ;  it  indicated  no  lack  of  firm- 
ness, but  was  wisely  shaped  to  get  truth  into  the  minds  of  the 
men  who  must  control  public  opinion,  before  the  violentpassions 
and  prejudices  of  the  masses  should  render  cool  consideration 


24  .  GALATIANS. — CHAP.    II. 

and   right  judgment  practically  impossible.     Paul  was  a  wise 
man. 

3.  But  neither  Titus,  who  wa.s  with  me,  being  a  Greek, 
W'as  compelled  to  be  circumcised : 

4.  And  that  because  of  false  brethren  unawares  brought 
in,  who  came  in  privily  to  spy  out  our  liberty  which  we  have 
in  Christ  Jesus,  that  they  might  bring  us  into  bondage : 

5.  To  whom  we  gave  place  by  subjection,  no,  not  for  an 
hour ;  that  the  truth  of  the  gospel  might  continue  with  you. 

"  But"  (the  Greek  "a7.?.a"  with  this  strong  adversative  sense) — 
hut,  despite  of  the  delicacy  and  difficulty  of  this  great  issue,  I 
carried  my  point  (as  you  will  see),  for  Titus  who  went  up  with 
me,  well  known  to  be  a  Greek  convert  and  therefore  not  circum- 
cised In  infancy,  was  not  compelled  to  be  circumcised.  The  lead- 
ing men  at  Jerusalem  conceded  this  main  question  and  made  no 
demand  for  his  circumcision.  This  was  precisely  a  test  case. — 
The  question  was  forced  then  to  a  decision,  for  false  brethren 
were  there  who  insinuated  themselves  Into  our  Christian  commun- 
ion to  spy  out  our  practice  in  this  respect  and  wrest  from  us  this 
freedom  from  the  yoke  of  Jewish  bondage,  to  which  freedom  we 
were  entitled  under  the  law  of  Christ.  But  on  the  point  of  sub- 
jecting Gentile  converts  to  the  Mosaic  law,  we  made  not  the  least 
concession,  not  for  one  hour,  that  we  might  hold  fast  the  truth  of 
the  gospel. 

6.  But  of  those  who  seemed  to  be  somewhat,  whatsoever 
they  were,  it  maketh  no  matter  to  me :  God  accepteth  no 
man's  person :  for  they  who  seemed  to  be  someiuhat  in  confer- 
ence added  nothing  to  me : 

7.  But  contrariwise,  when  they  saw  that  the  gospel  of  the 
nncircumcision  was  committed  unto  me,  as  the  gosjjel  of  tlie 
circumcision  was  unto  Peter ; 

8.  (For  he  that  wrought  effectually  in  Peter  to  the  apos- 
tleshlp  of  the  circumcision,  the  same  was  mighty  in  me  to- 
ward the  Gentiles ;) 

9.  And  when  James,  Cephas,  and  John,  who  seemed  to  be 
pillars,  perceived  the  grace  that  was  given  unto  me,  they 
gave  to  me  and  Barnabas  the  right  hands  of  fellowship,  that 
we  should  fjo  unto  the  heathen,  and  they  unto  the  circumcision. 

10.  Only  they  ivould  that  we  should  remember  the  poor;  the 
same  which  I  also  was  forward  to  do. 

In  the  first  clause  of  v.  C,  the  sentence  beginning — "Of  those," 
etc.,  soon  changes  its  construction  to  this  form:  "For  thoy  who 
seemed,"  etc. — a  break  and  change  of  construction  not  infrequent 

in    Paul'.^    style  of  \\a-iting. "  Seemed  to  be  somewhat,"  does 

not  im])ly  that  they  appeared  to  be  more  or  better  than  they  were. 
The  phrase  here,  as  in  v.  2,  where  the   same  Greek  words   arc 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.   II.  25 

translated — "  them  who  are  of  reputation,"  denotes  only  the  lead- 
ing, prominent  men  in  the  church.  Those  men  taught  me  nothing 
new ;  added  nothing  to  my  previous  knowledge  of  the  gospel  or 
to  my  convictions  as  to  the  main  point  now  in  issue.  However 
great  or  honored  they  may  have  been,  was  of  no  consequence  to 
me.  God  accepts  no  man's  person,  nor  do  I.  High  position 
neither  makes  nor  unmakes  gospel  truth.  So  far  from  yielding 
my  convictions  and  changing  my  opinions  out  of  deference  to  the 
great  men  at  Jerusalem,  1  stood  my  ground  firmly  and  carried  my 
point.  For  when  they  saw  that  the  gospel  to  uncircumcised  Gen- 
tiles had  been  committed  to  me,  as  the  gospel  to  circumcised 
Jews  had  been  to  Peter ;  when  they  saw  that  God  had  wrought 
through  his  manifested  Spirit  to  sanction  my  labors  among  the 
Gentiles,  even  as  he  had  to  bless  Peter  in  converting  Jews,  ^hen, 
like  honest  Christian  men,  they  yielded  the  main  point ;  gave  to 
myself  and  Barnabas  their  right  hand  of  fellowship  to  go  to  the 
uncircumcised  Gentiles,  and  to  others  to  go  to  circumcised  Jews. 
Even  their  chief  apostle,  James,  known  as  the  honored  pastor  of 
the  Jerusalem  Church,  Cephas  also  (  Peter),  and  John,  the  beloved 
disciple — men  recognized  as  pillars  in  the  church — all  these  men 
gave  us  their  unqualified  sanction  to  go  to  the  Gentiles  and  preach 
a  gospel  that  made  no  demand  upon  them  whatever  for  circum- 
cision and  subjection  to  the  law  of  Moses  as  conditions  of  salva- 
tion. In  giving  us  this  hearty,  unqualified  indorsement,  they 
only  stipulated  that  we  should  remember  the  poor — as  to  which 
I  had  always  been  as  prompt  as  themselves. 

11.  But  when  Peter  was  come  to  Antioch,  I  withstood  him 
to  the  face,  because  he  was  to  be  blamed. 

12.  For  before  that  certain  came  from  James,  he  did  eat 
with  the  Gentiles :  but  when  they  were  come,  he  withdrew 
and  separated  himself,  fearing  them  which  were  of  the  cir- 
cumcision. 

13.  And  the  other  Jews  dissembled  likewise  with  him  ;  in- 
somuch that  Barnabas  also  was  carried  away  with  their  dis- 
simulation. 

Another  important  historical  fact,  fully  in  point  as  to  the  main 
question.  Paul  speaking  in  his  own  first  person,  would  say:  So 
far  from  borrowing  my  gospel  truth  or  practice  from  Peter,  I  was 
obliged  to  dissent  sharply  from  his  practices  and  remonstrate  with 
him  to  his  face.  This  occurred  when  he  came  to  visit  the  breth- 
ren at  Antioch.  Peter  had  previously  risen  above  his  caste- 
notions,  and  had  eaten  with  uncircumcised  Gentile  converts ;  but 
when  certain  brethren  came  from  James,  the  recognized  cham- 
pion of  Jewish  exclusiveness,  Peter,  fearing  for  his  standing  with 
James  and  his  party,  withdrew  from  his  Gentile  brethren  and 
stood  al?)of  from  their  table  and  from  their  Christian  fellowship. 
He  did  this,  not  because  either  the  truth  of  the  gospel  or  his  own 
convictions  of  it  had  changed,  but  because  he  timidly  and  unwor- 


26  GALATIANS. — CHAP.  II. 

til ily  violated  his  conscience  through  fear  of  losing  caste  with 
prominent  men  at  Jerusalem.  This  was  culpable  dissimulation. 
It  swept  along  other  Jews  and  even  Barnabas  in'  the  strong  cur- 
rent of  popular  Jewish  feeling. 

14.  But  Avhen  I  saw  that  they  ^valked  not  uprightly  accord- 
ing to  the  truth  of  the  gospel,  I  said  unto  Peter  before  them 
all,  if  thou,  being  a  Jew,  livest  after  the  manner  of  Gentiles, 
and  not  as  do  the  Jews,  why  compellest  thou  the  Gentiles  to 
live  as  do  the  Jews? 

15.  We  who  are  Jews  by  nature,  and  not  sinners  of  the 
Gentiles, 

16.  Know^ing  that  a  man  is  not  justified  by  the  works  of 
the  law,  but  by  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ,  even  we  have  be- 
lieved in  Jesus  Christ,  that  we  might  be  justified  by  the  faith 
of  Christ,  and  not  by  the  works  of  the  law :  for  by  the  works 
of  the  law  shall  no  flesh  be  justified. 

When  I  saw  them  thus  dishonest,  swerving  so  manifestly  from 
the  true  gospel  rule  and  from  their  own  real  convictions,  I  said 
to  Cephas  (so  the  older  authorities)  before  them  all — i.  e.,  in  the 
presence  of  all  the  rest:  If  thou,  a  Jew  by  birth,  dost  conform  to 
Gentile  usages  (as  thou  hast  heretofore  done)  and  dost  not  hold 
thyself  bound  to  adhere  to  Jewish  usage,  why  dost  thou  compel 
men  who  are  born  Gentiles  to  Judaize — i.  e.,  to  be  circumcised? 
Pursuing  the  same  argument  (vs.  15,  16) :  We,  Jews  by  birth  and 
not  Gentile  sinners,  knowing  that  a  man  is  never  justified  by 
works  of  law  but  only  by  faith  in  Christ,  even  we  have  believed 
in  Christ,  that  we  may  be  justified  by  faith,  not  by  works,  for  we 
know  perfectly  that  by  works  of  law  no  human  soul  can  be  jus- 
tified. Thus  our  assured  belief  in  Jesus  only  and  our  personal 
reception  of  him  as  our  only  ground  of  justification  should  by  no 
means  be  thrown  into  the  shade,  much  less  should  it  be  vir- 
tually belied  and  overruled  by  representing  circumcision  as  es- 
sential to  salvation. 

17.  But  if,  while  we  seek  to  be  justified  by  Christ,  Ave  our- 
selves also  are  found  sinners,  is  therefore  Christ  the  minister 
of  sin?    God  forbid. 

18.  For  if  I  build  again  the  things  which  I  destroyed,  I 
make  myself  a  transgressor. 

The  supposition  made  here — essentially  this— that  gratuitous 
justification  gives  license  to  sin,  has  its  parallel  in  Paul  to  the 
'Romans  (6:  1):  "Shall  we  continue  in  sin  that  grace  may 
abound?"  and  brings  forth  there  the  same  intlignant,  intense 
dfMiial  as  here.  If  we  sin  under  this  system  of  justification  by 
(Whilst  only,  can  it  be  charged  that  ('hrist  Ix^comos  the  minister  of 
sin — its  promoter,  the  oijcasion  ol"  our  more  easily  in<lulgiug  our- 
selves in  transgression?     Never  I     God  forbid!     Por  if  I  build 


GALATIANS — CHAP.  II.  27 

ap-ain  what  I  have  once  thrown  down,  I  convict  myself  of  sin ; 
I  show  myself  to  be  at  heart  a  transgressor.  That  is,  if  I  build 
up  again  the  system  of  salvation  by  works  of  law,  having  once 
thrown  it  down  by  the  doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith  in  Christ 
only,  I  convict  myself  of  sin.  This,  we  must  suppose,  is  tlie  pur- 
posed application  of  the  argument  to  the  case  of  Peter,  then  in 
hand.  Had  Peter,  possibly,  become  more  easy  as  to  his  con- 
science under  the  doctrine  that  justification  (pardon  for  sin) 
comes  so  readily  through  the  blood  of  Christ,  and  had  he  there- 
fore become  lax  in  this  matter  of  concession  to  the  Jewish  prej- 
udices of  his  brother  James  ?  If  so  he  deserved  this  indignant 
rebuke ! 

19.  For  I  through  the  law  am  dead  to  the  law,  that  I 
might  live  unto  God. 

It  may  be  a  question  whether  this  v.  19,  and  also  vs.  20,  21,  should 
be  considered  a.s  part  of  Paul's  actual  address  to  Peter,  ])eginning 
in  the  middle  of  v.  14.  This  is  certainly  supposeable.  The  strain 
of  remark  and  mode  of  address  continue  unchanged  to  the  end 

of  this  chapter. The  point  is  not  vital  to  the  sense;  for  if  he 

did  not  say  all  this  to  Peter  at  that  time,  he  certainly  said  it  to 
the  Galatian  brethren;  he  said  it  to  all  mankind.  These  verses 
all  bear  to  the  same  point  and  fill  out  this  one  great  argument. 

"For  through  the  law  itself  I  have  died  to  the  law  (as  my 

hope  of  salvation)  that  I  might  live  unto  God."  The  law  itself 
utterly  annihilated  all  my  former  hope  of  justification.  For  it 
demanded  perfect  obedience;  in  its  own  words;  "Continuing  in 
all  things  written  in  the  law  to  do  them"  (Deut.  27:  26) — so 
that  I  plainly  saw  my  doom  of  death  there;  my  hopes  all  per- 
ished!  This    put   an  end  to   my  old  Pharisaic   life  (through 

righteousness  by  the  law),  and  left  me  to  seek  my  life  in  God's 
other  way,  viz.,  in  Christ — which  I  must  now  proceed  to  unfold. 

Let  it  be   definitely  noted   that  our  authorized  version — "I 

am  dead  " — fails  to  translate  Paul's  words  closely,  for  Paul  said, 
I  icas  dead;  I  had  previously  died  to  the  law  by  the  very  appli- 
cation and  force  of  law  itself. 

20.  I  am  crucified  with  Christ :  nevertheless  I  live ;  yet 
not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me :  and  the  life  which  I  now  live 
in  the  flesh  I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God,  who 
loved  me,  and  gave  himself  for  me. 

21.  I  do  not  frustrate  the  grace  of  God:  for  if  righteous- 
ness come  by  the  law,  then  Christ  is  dead  in  vain. 

Combined  with  the  hopelessness  of  being  saved  by  mere  law, 
there  came  in  another  power  to  slay  my  old  self-righteous  self. 
This  was  the  cross  of  Christ.  When  I  saw  that,  my  old  Pharisaic 
life  died  within  me.  The  crucifying  of  Christ  effectually  cruci- 
fied me.  Because  he  died,  1  died.  I  saw  in  that  death  what  put 
an  end  forever  to  my  old  life  of  reliance  on  my  good  works  for 


28  GALATIANS. — CHAP.  III. 

salvation.  I  found  in  it  also  a  new  and  marvolously  quickening 
power  that  lifted  me  into  a  new  life   toward  God.      It  is  now  no 

longer  the  old  /  that  lives,  but  it  is  Christ  that  lives  in  me. 

Paul  wrote  his  word  1  ("Kyw")  fully  out  and  thus  made  it  em- 
phatic. In  our  English  idiom  we  can  not  express  this  emphatic 
sense  of  Paul's  Greek  better  than  to  say:  The  living  one — the 

center  and  seat  of  this  life — is  no  longer  I,  but  Christ  in  me. 

Amplifying  and  still  expanding  his  thought,  he  said,  What  life  I 
now  live  in  the  flesh  (in  this  present  world)  I  live  in  and  by 
means  of  the  faith  which  reposes  in  the  Son  of  God,  who  hath 
loved  me  and  given  himself  to  die  for  me.     From  this  faith  cornea 

all  my  life-power. 1  do  not  set  aside  the  grace  of  God — do  not 

displace  that  wonderful  redemption ;  but  I  should  do  this  if  I 
were  to  go  back  to  Judaism  for  my  spiritual  life  and  hope,  for 
C'gar"),  (referring  to  the  implied  supposition  which  is  here  sug- 
gested) if  righteousness  were  through  law,  then  Christ  died  with- 
out cause.-  His  death  was  needless ;  there  was  no  occasion  for 
it  whatever.  And  a  merely  superfluous  sacrifice  of  the  life-blood 
of  Jesus  should  have  been  spared. 

My  system  therefore  (Paul  would  say)  does  not  disown  and 
rule  out  the  great  love  of  God  in  the  gift  of  his  Son,  but  infinitely 
exalts  and  glorifies  it. 

In  this  passage  the  question  arises  whether  the  life  Paul 
speaks  of  is  that  of  sanctification  or  justification.  This  question 
should  be  determined  by  Paul's  course  of  thought  and  of  argu- 
ment. Applying  this  test  we  are  compelled  to  answer:  To  justi- 
fication, and  not  specially  to  sanctification.  lie  is  not  speaking 
of  that  sustaining  grace  by  which  the  Christian  triumphs  over 
temptation,  rising  above  sin  and  living  a  new  spiritual  life;  but 
rather  of  that  life  before  God  of  which  pardon,  justification  in 
the  eye  of  law,  is  the  vital  element,  llis  thought  is  on  the 
two  contrasted  lives — the  Pharisaic  life  of  dependence  on  works 
for  acceptance  before  God,  and  the  Chribtiau  wliich  depends  fur 
acceptance  on  Jesus  alone. 


CHAPTER    III. 

Tx  this  chapter  the  apostle  begins  to  open  tlie  great  argument 
of  this  epistle,  the  central  idea  being  that  the  gospel  scheme 
canu;  from  (Jod  first  of  all  in  the  form  u^ promise  on  his  p:irt, 
which  calls  for  responsive; y(:n7/i  on  man's  pait.  'I'hrough  divine 
promise  and  human  faith  came  the  gifts  of  tlu>  Spirit  in  th;it 
Christian  age;  through  similar  divine  jtromise  and  human  laith 
came  one  of  the  first  clear  intimations  of  gospel  blessings  given 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.  III.  29 

to  Abraham  and  to  his  seed.  All  this  is  in  strong;  contrast  with 
the  opposite  system  which  makes  salvation  depend  on  circum- 
cision and  works  of  law.  This  contrast  is  kept  steadily  and 
strongly  before  the  mind  throughout  the  argumentative  portion 
of  this  epistle  (chaps.  3  and  4.) 

To  begin  :  The  Galatians  have  been  fascinated  into  great  folly 
that  they  should  become  blind  as  to  Jesus  and  his  cross  (v.  1); 
forgetting  that  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit  came  not  through  works  of 
law  but  through  faith  (v.  2);  strangely  assuming  that  what  was 
begun  so  auspiciously  in  the  Spirit  could  be  carried  out  to  its 
consummation  by  the  flesh  (v.  3).  Did  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit  and 
the  miracles  wrought  among  them  come  through  works  of  law,  or 
through  faith  (v.  4,  5)?  Abraham  also  received  all  his  blessings 
through  faith  which  became  the  ground  of  his  acceptance  before 
God  (v.  6) ;  so  also  to  all  believers  (v.  7) :  prophetic  Scripture  had 
anticipated  this  method  of  salvation  (vs.  8,  9).  Over  against  this, 
the  scheme  of  salvation  through  works  of  law  must  leave  all  men 
under  the  curse  (v.  10),  for  only  by  faith  can  lost  men  live  (v.  Jl ); 
for  the  law  rests  not  on  faith  but  on  doings  (v.  12).  Christ  lifts  the 
curse  of  the  law  from  lost  men  by  bearing  it  himself  so  that  the 
promised  gifts  of  the  Spirit  are  through  faith  (vs.  13,  14).  Cove- 
nants even  between  men,  once  ratified,  remain  unchanged  (v.  15); 
God  promised  blessings  to  Abraham  and  to  his  seed  by  covenant 
and  promise,  which  the  law,  subsequently  made,  can  in  nowise 
annul  (vs.  16-18) ;  yet  law  serves  the  purpose  of  manifesting  sin, 
but  falls  entirely  below  the  great  covenant  of  promise  inasmuch 
as  it  came  through  a  human  medium  (vs.  19,  20).  Law  subserves 
its  lower  purpose  inasmuch  as  it  reveals  sin  and  enforces  con- 
viction, and  also  impresses  man's  need  of  a  Savior  (vs.  21-25). 
Faith  makes  men  children  of  God;  identifies  them  with  Christ  in 
the  great  communion  of  Abraham's  seed  and  makes  them  all, 
equally  with  him,  heirs  of  promise  (vs.  26-29). 

1.  O  foolish  Galatians,  who  hath  bewitched  you,  that  ye 
should,  not  obey  the  truth,  before  whose  eyes  Jesus  Christ 
hath  been  evidently  set  forth,  crucified  among  you  ? 

Amazed  at  such  folly,  Paul  likens  it  to  a  fascination  or  charm 
of  witchery  which  had  sealed  their  eyes  to  Christ  crucified  though 
this  had  transpired,  as  it  were,  in  their  very  presence,  so  that  they 
seemed  as  men  blind  to  the  great  gospel  truths  involved  in  the 
cross  of  Christ.  How  easily,  if  only  they  would,  might  they  have 
dispelled  this  bewitching  fascination  by  lifting  their  eyes  up  to 
this  crucified  Jesus,  almost  present  to  their  eye  of  sense !  How 
could  they  be  so  blind,  so  void  of  understanding !  What  could 
have  wrought  upon  them  this  strange  fascination  ? 

The  best  authorities  omit  the  clause  "That  ye  should  not  obey 
the  truth,"  not  because  the  sentiment  is  bad  or  inept  here ;  but  be- 
cause the  oldest  manuscripts  omit  it,  and  it  has  probably  been  in- 
terpolated. The  omission  of  this  clause  neither  changes  the  sense 
nor  weakens  the  force  of  the  sentence. 


30  GALATIANS. — CHAP.    III. 

2.  This  only  would  I  learn  of  5^011 ;  Received  ye  the  Spirit 
by  the  works  of  the  law,  or  by  the  hearing  of  faith  ? 

3.  Are  ye  so  foolish  ?  having  begun  in  the  SjHrit,  are  ye 
now  made  perfect  by  the  flesh  ? 

4.  Have  ye  suffered  so  many  things  in  vain?  if  it  he  yet 
in  vain. 

"  This  only  do  I  wish  to  learn  of  you" — for  this  one  point  ought 
to  decide  the  entire  question :  Did  ye  receive  the  supernatural 
gifts  of  the  Spirit  by  means  of  works  of  law,  or  by  means  of  faith 
through  the  hearing  of  the  gospel  ?  Ye  will  remember  that  ac- 
cording to  the  promise  of  the  Lord  (Mark  16:  17,  18)  "these 
signs  did  follow  them  that  believed" — God's  own  attestation  to 
the  presence  of  his  Spirit  and  to  the  reality  of  this  gospel  salva- 
tion. These  supernatural  gifts  which  appear  all  along  the  history 
of  apostolic  labors  {e.  g.,  1  Cor.  12:  1-11)  were  not  specially  of 
the  invisible  sort,  but  of  the  visible.  They  were  purposely  open 
and  palpable  demonstrations  of  the  presence  and  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  Did  those  Judaizing  teachers  bring  with  them  such 
divine  attestations  ?  When  ye  first  heard  the  gospel  from  my  lips 
and  from  the  lips  of  my  fellow-laborers,  did  these  signs  come 
through  any  works  of  laAV  whatsoever,  or  only  through  faith? 
Let  the  answer  to  this  point  be  conclusive. 

Another  point:  Ye  can  not  but  know  that  fles'h  is  weakness, 
and  that  Spirit  is  power.  Ye  began  your  gospel  life  in  the  power 
of  the  Spirit.  In  and  through  the  divine  Spirit,  its  great  and 
deep  foundations  were  laid  in  3^our  transformed  hearts  and  lives. 
And  now,  do  ye  think  to  carry  up  the  great  spiritual  temple  to  its 
finished  consummation  by  means  of  the  weakness  of  flesh  ?  Are 
ye  so  infatuated  as  to  suppose  that  ye  can  finish  by  means  of 
weak  flesh  what  God  began  so  auspiciously  by  the  might  of  his 
SpJt-it? Moreover,  in  common  with  Christian  converts  gener- 
ally in  this  age,  ye  have  sufiered*  persecution  for  Christ.  Shall 
this  be  all  in  vain?  Can  ye  afibrd  to  forfeit  your  Christian  birth- 
right, bought  at  such  cost,  and  get  nothing  but  loss  in  return  ? — • 
If  indeed  it  must  prove  utterly  in  vain  by  your  abandoning  the 
gospel  after  having  suffered  so  much  in  its  behalf,  how  sad  the 
case ! 

5.  He  therefore  that  ministereth  to  you  the  Spirit,  and 
worketh  miracles  among  you,  doeth  he  it  by  the  works  of  the 
law,  or  by  the  hearing  of  faith? 

This  carries  the  question  of  v.  2  back  to  those  who  first 
preached  to  them  the  gospel.  They  were  God's  ministers  for 
communicating  those  precious  and  witnessing  gifts  of  the  Spirit. 
When  they  laid  hands  upon  you  to  signify  the  imparting  of  those 
gifts,  and  when  they  wrought  miracles  in  some  all-p<(tent  namo, 
did  they  invoke  circumcision,  or  did  they  invoke  Christ?  Did 
they  say — Let  these  heaven-sent  blessings  come  through  the  law 
of  Moses;  or  were  thc^y  very  particular  to  invoke  these  blessings 
always  and  only  in  the  name  of  the  risen  Jesus  ?     Consider,  b&- 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.    III.  31 

loved  brethren,  and  then  as  wise  men,  pass  your  judgment  upon 
what  I  saj. 

6.  Even  as  Abraham  believed  God,  and  it  was  accounted 
to  him  for  righteousness. 

7.  Know  ye  therefore  that  they  which  are  of  faith,  the 
same  are  the  children  of  Abraham. 

8.  And  the  scripture,  foreseeing  that  God  would  justify 
the  heathen  through  faith,  preached  before  the  gospel  unto 
Abraham,  saying ,  In  thee  shall  all  nations  be  blessed. 

9.  So  then  they  which  be  of  faith  are  blessed  with  faithful 
Abraham. 

With  exquisite  pertinence  and  telling  force,  Paul  carries  back 
his  argument  to  the  case  of  Abraham — the  acknowledged  father 
of  all  believers.  The  men  \vho  had  brought  in  among  the 
churches  of  Galatia  these  new  and  pernicious  doctrines  were  Jeivs 
— Jews  who  revered  and  almost  adored  Abraham  ;  but  were  they 
children  of  Abraham  ?  Did  they,  as  he  did,  believe  God,  and  had 
their  faith,  like  his,  been  accounted  to  them  for  righteousness  ? 
Alas,  this  faith  was  the  very  thing  they  had  not;  this  system  of 
justification  was  the  thing  they  were  laboring  with  utmost  effort 
and  skill  to  subvert !  Hence  Paul  confronts  them  thus  vigorously 
and  unanswerably  with  the  example  of  their  great  national  father. 
lie  believed  God,  and  this  faith  of  his  became  the  ground  of  his 
acceptance  as  righteous.  Those  and  only  those  wlio  believe  as  he 
did  can  be  his  children.  Those  Judaizing  men  who  discard  his 
faith  and    put    circumcision  in  its  place,  are  apostate  from  his 

household. Go  back  to  your  own  ancient  scriptures  and  read 

for  yourselves.  That  scripture,  personating  to  us  the  very  voice 
of  God,  prophetically  foreseeing  that  God  justifies  Gentile  as  well 
as  Jew  through  faith  and  not  through  works,  preached  this  very 
gospel  more  than  a  thousand  years  beforehand,  in  those  words  to 
Abraham:  "In  thee  shall  all  nations  be  blessed;" — in  thee,  in- 
cluding, of  course,  as  Paul  will  soon  show,  his  offspring  who  were 
specially  embraced  and  enfolded  in  this  promise.  Yet  in  the 
thought  of  Paul,  this  offspring  were  of  and  like  Abraham  in  the 
spirit  rather  than  in  the  flesh,  the  virtue  passing  down  from  him 
not  in  his  blood,  but  in  his  faith.  Thus  all  men  of  faith,  true 
believers,  are  blessed  along  with  their  great  believing  father  and 
on  the  same  basis  of  faith. 

The  reader  should  not  fail  to  note  that  Paul  speaks  of  "  the 
Scripture"  as  itself  foreseeing  prophetically  what  was  doing  in 
the  gospel  age,  and  as  itself  preaching  the  gospel  in  words  which 
the  historic  Scriptures  give  us  as  from  the  mouth  of  God  him- 
self. Nothing  could  prove  more  decisively  that  Paul  heard  and 
recognized  in  those  ancient  Scriptures  the  very  voice  of  God. 
•He  practically  believed  that  "  all  Scripture  was  heaven-inspired — 
breathed  into  holy  men  by  the  spiritual  breath  of  the  Almighty." 

10.  For  as  many  as  are  of  the  works  of  the  law  are  under 


32  GALATIANS. — CHAP.  III. 

the  curse:  for  it  is  Avritten,  Cursed  is  everyone  that  contin- 
ueth  not  in  all  things  which  are  written  in  the  book  of  the 
law  to  do  fhem. 

11.  But  that  no  man  is  justified  by  the  law  in  the  sight  of 
God,  it  is  evident :  for,  The  just  shall  live  by  faith. 

12.  And  the  law  is  not  of  faith :  but,  The  man  that  doeth 
them  shall  live  in  them. 

Briefly  but  forcibly  Paul  describes  and  names  the  two  opposite 
classes  as  those  who  rely  upon  works  of  law  on  the  one  hand, 
and  those  who  are  of  faith  on  the  other.  The  former  seek  their 
salvation  in  circumcision  and  the  Mosaic  law  of  perfect  obedi- 
ence: the  latter  hope  for  justification  through  faith  in  Christ 
only.  Paul  then  proceeds  to  show  that  all  those  men  of  Avorks 
of  law  are  under  curse,  unless  their  obedience  has  been  alwaj^s 
invariably  perfect,  for  so  the  terms  of  salvation  hy  laAV  run  : 
"  Cursed  is  every  one  that  continueth  not  in  all  things  Avritten 
in  the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them"  (  Deut.  27:  26).  On  the 
basis  of  law  this  is  the  sole  condition  of  acceptance  before  God, 
and  Paul  might  safely  have  appealed  to  every  man's  conscience 
— Does  your  life,  in  the  light  of  your  own  conscience,  meet  that 
one  supreme  and  vital  condition?  This  he  might  have  said;  but 
he  leaves  such  an  appeal  to  their  conscience  unspoken ;  and  pro- 
ceeds to  appeal  again  to  Scripture  for  his  proof  that  no  man  is 
justified  before  God  on  mere  law;  for,  according  to  Scripture, 
"  The  just  man  lives  by  fiiith  ;" — Avhich  of  course  implies,  hjfaitk 
onhj  ;  by  faith  and  not  by  works  of  law. 

l>nt  to  clinch  this  argument  from  the  Scriptures,  he  proceeds : 
— "  The  law  is  not  of  faith;"  the  law  never  even  names  faith  at 
all  as  a  ground  of  righteousness  before  God,  but  on  the  contrary 
its  doctrine  is  evermore  this  and  this  only:  "The  man  that 
doeth  them  sh-.dl  live  in  and  by  means  of  them."  The  law  treats 
of  doings  and  of  nothing  else.  It  accepts  men's  doings  if  only 
they  are  perfect.  It  knows  nothing  about  faith  in  the  place  of 
doings. 

The  passage  quoted  (v.  11)  appears  original  in  Hab.  2:  4,  and 
is  quoted  in  Romans  1:  17  and  Heb.  10:  38.  It  is  a  nice  ques- 
tion whether  to  connect  the  words  "of  faith"  with  "justified" 
or  with  "shall  live."  In  the  former  case  the  construction  Avill  be 
— The  man  justified  of  faith  shall  live;  in  the  latter,  The  just 
man  shall  live  of  his  faith.  Grammatically  either  is  admissilde. 
Vmt  the  original  Hebrew  (  Hab.  2:4)  decidedly  favors  the  latter; 
Avhich  also  best  meets  the  exigencies  of  Paul's  argument  and  best 
presents  tlie  antithesis  between  living  ])y  faith  and  living  by  works 
of  law;   and  therefore  should  be  prt-ferred. 

Verse  12  contituies  the  argument  with  the  Greek  ("  de"  )  in  the 

sense  of  Irttt  rather  than   "and"; Bui,  ye  will  observe,  it  is 

most  plain  that  the  law  is  not  of  faith — docs  not  work  on  that 
])rinciple  at  all,  but  only  on  the  principle  of  doing  :  "He  that  doeth 
these  things  sliall  live  by  them" — i.  e.,  by  means  of  thcni.     Ye 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.  III.  33 

may  see  this  in  Lev.  18 :  5.  Paul  has  the  same  argument  and  doc- 
trine in  Kom.  10:  ^. 

13.  Christ  hath  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of  the  law, 
being  made  a  curse  for  us:  for  it  is  written,  Cursed  is  every 
one  that  hangeth  on  a  tree: 

14.  That  the  blessing  of  Abraham  might  come  on  the  Gen- 
tiles through  Jesus  Christ ;  that  we  might  receive  the  promise 
of  the  Spirit  through  faith. 

How  men  are  ever  saved  under  such  a  law,  it  is  important  now 
to  show.     The  curse  for  its  violation  having  fallen  upon  all,  how 

can  any  man  ever  be  saved  ? The  answer  is — In  and  through 

the  gospel  and  by  this  only.  It  begins  with  saying  "  Christ." 
"  Christ  has  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of  broken  law  by  becom- 
ing himself  a  curse  "  (a  cursed  one)  in  our  behalf  and  stead — in 
proof  of  which,  at  this  point,  Paul  appeals  to  that  ancient  Script- 
ure which  declares  every  one  cursed  who  is  hanged  upon  a  tree 
(Deut.  21 :  22,  23).  So  Jesus  was  held  and  deemed  accursed  before 
the  Jewish  people  by  his  death  upon  the  cross.  By  that  death  he 
became  accursed  under  the  doctrine  of  their  law,  and  Paul  testi- 
fies, became  himself  a  curse  for  us — in  our  behalf  and  stead,  so 
that  the  curse  was  lifted  from  us  when  it  was  assumed  and  borne 
by  himself.  At  this  point  he  enters  into  no  further  detail  as  to 
the  doctrine  of  Christ's  atoning  death,  but  proceeds  to  say  that 
by  means  of  this  atoning  death  for  us,  the  blessings  promised  to 
and  through  Abraham  come  upon  the  Gentiles  so  that  we  receive 
the  promised  Spirit  through  fuith.'^ 

15.  Brethren,  I  speak  after  the  manner  of  men ;  Though 
it  he  but  a  man's  covenant,  yet  if  it  he  confirmed,  no  man 
disannulleth,  or  addeth  thereto. 

The  passage  commencing  here  being  specially  difficult,  calls  for 

careful  and  thorough  examination. First  we  must,  if  possible, 

reach  the  true  sense  of  the  words — "I  speak  as  a  man."f  The 
authorized  version  is  unexceptionable,  but  leaves  the  question  still 
open ; — in  what  respect  after  the  manner  of  men  ? 

Looking  for  other  cases  of  the  usage  of  this  Pauline  phrase, 
we  read  (Rom.  3:5):  "But  if  our  unrighteousness  commend  the 
righteousness  of  God,  what  shall  we  say  ?  Is  God  unrighteous 
who   taketh   vengeance  ? — I  speak   after  the   manner  of   man — 

God  forbid!" which  seems  to  mean;  I  speak  here  necessarily 

from  the  human  stand-point;  I  speak  therefore  with  bated  breath, 
reverently ;  for  how  does  it  become  one  of  mortal  flesh  to  pass  a 

'••  The  bearing  of  this  passage  upon  the  scriptural  doctrine  of 
Christ's  atonement,  as  also  the  whole  question  of  atonement,  have 
been  treated  in  a  special  essay  appended  to  my  volume  on  "  The 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews." 

'\Kara  avOpuTtov. 


34  GALATIANS. — CHAr.  III. 

judgment  upon  the  ways  of  the  infinite  God! Again  (1  Cor. 

9 :  8) :  "  Who  feeds  the  flock  and  eats  not  of  th*  milk  of  the  flock  ? 
Do  1  sa}^  these  things  as  a  man,  i.  e.,  on  merely  human  authority, 

or  does  not  the  Law  say  the  same"? And  yet  again  (1  Cor. 

15:  32):  "If  after  the  manner  of  man,  1  have  fought  with  wild 
beasts  at  Ephesus" — the  phrase  here  being  apparently  designed 
to  qualify  the  strong  figure  "  fighting  with  wild  beasts  " — which, 
dropping  the  figure,  meant  only  men  as  savage  as  they.  If,  hu- 
manly speaking,  I  fought  with  lions  and  tigers. These  cases, 

it  will  be  noticed,  exhibit  some  variety  in  its  shades  of  meaning. 
Guided  by  Paul's  own  usage  Ave  may  take  his  meaning  here  to  be  this : 
1  have  occasion  to  speak  of  God's  covenant  with  Abraham;  and 
therefore,  first  of  all,  1  bring  an  analogy  from  covenants  made  be- 
tAveen  man  and  man.  This  is  looking  at  the  case /ro??i  the  human 
sfand-point.  With  our  eye  on  covenants  made  by  man  with  his  fel- 
low-man, we  readily  derive  principles  which  apply  legitimately  to 
covenants  in  which  God  is  one  party.  So  Ellicott  says :  "  An  argu- 
ment from  human  analogies,  and  which  he  uses  as  man  might." 
The  point  he  would  illustrate  is  this :  Though  a  covenant  Avere 
merely  human  as  to  the  parties  concerned,  yet  when  once  ratified 
("confirmed")  no  man  disannuls,  or,  of  his  own  motion,  adds  any 
thing  more.  It  must  stand  in  its  full  strength  with  no  right  in 
cither  party  to  change  its  conditions. 

16.  Now  to  Abraham  and  his  seed  were  tlie  promises 
made.  He  saith  not,  And  to  seeds,  as  of  many;  but  as  of 
one,  And  to  thy  seed,  which  is  Christ. 

The  difficulty  in  this  verse  is  that  Paul  seems  to  build  an  argu- 
ment upon  the  word  "seed"  [offspring],  assuming  that  it  must 
be  singular  (grammatically)  in  sense  because  it  is  so  in  form; 
whereas  by  usage  it  is  unquestionably  a  noun  of  multitude — /.  <?., 
though  singular  in  form,  yet  plural  in  sense.  Some  critics  have 
thought  this  argument  so  bad  as  virtually  to  impeach  Paul's  in- 
spiration if  not  even  his  honesty.  The  case,  therefore,  is  suffi- 
ciently grave  to  call  for  thorough  treatment. 

Let  it  then  be  noted  that  the  promises  made  to  Abraham  were 
in  suljstance  repeated  many  times;  and  also  that  they  comprised 
not  one  blessing  only  but  many.  See  Gen.  12:  7  and  13:  15  and 
15:  18  and  17:  7,  8;  also  22:  18;  also  as  renewed  to  Isaac,  Gen. 

26:    3-5;  and  again  to  Jacob,  Gen.  28:    13-15. The  leading 

points  embraced  Avere — {a.)  The  land  of  Canaan;  (/;.)  A  numerous 
posterity;  (c.)  Blessings  upon  the  natit>ns  in  and  through  his 
seed.  Of  tliese  Paul's  thouglit  is  specially  upon  the  latter — tlio 
}>lessings  that  come  to  the  nations  of  the  earth  through  his  seed. 
Canaan  and  Abraham's  numerous  lineal  ])osterity  Avcre  merely 
subsidiary  to  this  last  great  promise  and  did  not  come  directly 
into  Paul's  argument. 

Wc  are  now  to  in(juire  for  Paul's  real  thought.  It  is  therefore 
specially  legitimate  to  study  Avhat  else  he  says  bearing  upon  tiie 
meaning  of  this  Avord  "seed."     The  reader  should  carefully  note 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.    III.  35 

(«.)  that  in  v.  19  Paul  unquestionably  thinks  of  the  Messiah  as 
being  "  the  seed  that  should  come,  to  whom  the  promise  was 
made;"  and  also  (b.)  that  v.  29  holds  unquestionably  that  "those 
who  are  Christ's  {i.  e.,  by  faith)  are  Abraham's  seed  and  heirs 
according  to  the  promise."  Therefore  he  did  not  mean  to  say 
that  the  word  "seed"  included  but  one  individual  and  that  one, 
the  Messiah.  It  was  certainly  in  his  thought  that  all  Christ's 
true  children  are  embraced  in  this  seed  of  Abraham.  Indeed 
his  argument  requires  this  enlarged  and  modified  sense,  and  is 
entirely  inconclusive  upon  any  other  construction. 

We  have  now  in  hand  the  key  to  Paul's  meaning.  He  meant 
to  say  that  those  great  promises  to  Abraham  (a.)  did  certainly 
include  the  Messiah  to  come  lineally  from  Abraham:  (6.)  that 
the  Messiah  was  not  only  there,  embraced  in  the  mass  of  that 
numerous  posterity,  but  was  the  center  and  soul  of  that  promise 
— in  such  a  sense  central  that  without  him,  all  else  could  be  of 
no  account.  Without  him.  no  blessings  could  come  forth  out  of 
Abraham's  seed  upon  the  Gentiles;  without  him,  we  may  almost 
say,  no  gift  of  Canaan;  no  birth  of  even  Isaac;  no  numerous 
posterity  brought  into  covenant  with  God  and  upheld  through 
twenty  centuries  under  perpetual  ministrations  of  Providence 
and  grace  till  the  fullness  of  time  for  the  Messiah's  manifestation 
should  come.  In  Paul's  view  the  promised  Messiah  was  so  cen- 
tral, was  so  entirely  the  living  germ  in  this  seed-corn  of  the 
world's  harvest  of  mercies,  that  all  things  else  seem  to  fade  out 
of  mind  save  as  they  come  in  through  a  spiritual  union  with  him 
by  faith.  All  else,  ever  to  be  included  under  this  seed  of  Abra- 
ham, comes  in  only  through  this  union  with  Christ.  They  hold 
in  and  under  him.  Until  his  title  and  his  relations  are  deter- 
mined, they  are  of  no  account.     Of  rights  anterior  to  Christ,  they 

have  none. So  much  as  to  the  real  thought  of  the  apostle  in 

this  passage. 

We  have  then,  it  may  be  supposed,  Paul's  real  meaning;  but 
yet  the  question  recurs ; — What  of  his  grammar?  What  can  be  said 
for  his  apparent  argument  built  upon  the  word  "seed"  as  meaning 

one  when  in  actual  usage  it  means  a  multitude? Perhaps  this; 

that  he  found  this  peculiar  word,  singular  in  form,  though  by 
usage  a  noun  of  multitude,  to  be  specially  felicitous  for  his  pur- 
pose at  that  moment — which  was  to  show  that  the  prominent 
central  idea  in  those  promises  was  a  unit — one  great  unity,  viz., 
that  of  Christ,  the  person  of  the  Messiah.  It  enabled  him  to 
emphasize  this  remarkable  unity;  it  enabled  him  to  set  forth  that 
those  who  held  under  Abraham  through  God's  covenant  with  him 
held  only  and  entirely  under  and  by  means  of  the  one  great  off- 
spring— the  promised  Christ.  They  did  not  hold  as  many  indi- 
viduals but  as  one  body,  one  totality,  one  whole  though  made  up 
of  many  individuals.  The  covenant  meant  Abraham  and  his  one 
offspring,  Christ,  as  its  chief  significance.  It  meant  Christ  before 
it  could  mean  his  believing  people,  because  they  held  altogether 
under  him.  Through  him  and  him  first  and  chief  were  all  the 
nations  to  be  blessed.     And  because  all  blessings  included  under 


36  GALATIANS. — CHAP.    III. 

this  covenant  came  through  Christ,  therefore  faith  became  the 
one  condition  of  their  inlieriting  under  their  lledeemer.  By 
faith  they  were  made  one  with  him  in  their  title  to  this  promised 
inheritance  of  blessings.  It  was,  apparently,  to  make  all  these 
points   vividly  cle.ar   that  Paul  emphasizes  the    (grammatically) 

singular  form  of  this  word  "seed." It  may  be  noticed  that  the 

argument  from  the  singular  form  of  this  word  "seed"  is  not  al- 
luded to  again.     It  is  touched  (so  it  would  seem)  only  as  a  sug- 
•  gestive  illustration,  and  not  by  any  means  relied  on  as  a  staple 
argument. 

Another  exposition  of  this  v.  16  has  been  advanced,  which,  if 
admissible,  would  obviate  the  grammatical  and  logical  objections 
above  considered;  viz.,  that  Paul  does  not  refer  to  any  particular 
passage  in  the  Old  Testament,  which  contains  those  words,  but 
avails  himself  of  this  compendious  mode  of  speaking  as  a  con- 
venient  formula   for    summing   up  the    entire   teachings  of  the 

Scripture  on  this  subject. As  to  the  word  seed  (sperma)  the 

singular  and  the  plural  differ  in  this.  The  singular  denotes  unity 
of  class;  here,  all  who  are  of  faith,  and  thus  of  Christ  (v.  29); 
the  plural  denotes  a  plurality  of  classes; — in  the  present  appli- 
cation, all  shades  of  unbelievers  and  of  fleshly  relations  to  Abra- 
ham— sons  of  Ishmael,  Esau,  etc.  Therefore  Paul  would  say: — 
Search  the  entire  Old  Testament  Scriptures;  the  promises  all  run 
in  one  strain ;  they  make  no  mention  of  plurality  of  seeds — 
never  recognize  one  spiritual  seed  and  another  natural  one;  but 
always  one  seed  in  character  and  this  character,  that  of  faith — 
those  who  follow  in  the  faith  of  Abraham.  Now  therefore  as  the 
Avhole  Old  Testament  Scriptures  limit  the  promises  to  the  one 
believing  seed,  nothing  is  left  for  other  classes  of  men  not  believ- 
ing, though  lineally  descended  from  Abraham,  e.  g.,  through  Ish- 
mael. Ilence  this  argument  shuts  off  all  those  who  are  not  of 
faith  but  are  of  works  only. 

The  staple  objection  to  this  exposition  of  v.  16  is  this: — that 
Paul  does  seem  very  manifestly  to  refer  to  a  definite  promise 
made  of  God  to  Abraham,  and  made  in  very  definite  words.  This 
reference  is  too  plain  to  be  denied.  Paul  states  what  he  did  say 
and  what  he  did  tiot  say,  and  insists  that  the  one  seed — only  one 

— meant  precisely  (Uirist. This  proposed  exposition  presents  a 

very  just  view  of  the  Old  Testament  doctrine  as  to  being  heirs  of 
Abraliam  by  means  of  faith,  but  fails  to  relieve  the  objection 
against  Paul's  grammar  and  the  logic  apparently  built  upon  it. 

If  it  be  objected  that  this  construction  of  those  Abrahamic 
promises  puts  more  Messianic  meaning  into  them  than  Abraham 
could  have  dreamed  of,  or  that  it  makes  that  meaning  more  prom- 
inent than  he  could  have  seen  it,  the  answer  may  be  twofold: 
(a.)  What  then  ?  What  if  Abraham  did  not  take  in  the  full  sense 
of  those  promises?  Would  this  fact  rule  out  all  the  significance 
which  he  failed  to  get? — (h.)  Hut  even  this  concession  need  not 
))e  made,  for  .lesus  doubtless  knew,  l^etter  than  any  of  us,  how 
much  Abraham  understood;  and  he  said — "Abraham  rejoiced  to 
see  my  day,  and  he  saw  it  and  was  glad,"     (John  8:  56.) 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.    III.  37 

17.  And  this  I  say,  that  tlie  covenant,  that  was  confirmed 
before  of  God  in  Christ,  the  law,  which  w^as  four  hundred 
and  thirty  years  after,  cannot  disannul,  that  it  should  make 
the  promise  of  none  effect. 

18.  For  if  the  inheritance  be  of  the  law,  it  is  no  more  of 
promise :  but  God  ga,ve  it  to  Abraham  by  promise. 

Dropping  not  only  the  argument  of  v.  16,  but  even  the  verse 
itself,  and  taking  up  the  point  made  in  v.  15  as  if  v.  16  v^ere  not 
there,  he  says — The  covenant  with  Abraham,  once  ratified,  the 
law  given  through  Moses  four  hundred  and  thirty  years  after 
could  by  no  means  disannul  so  as  to  make  its  promises  void.  If 
it  had  been  a  man's  covenant  merely,  running  between  man  and 
man,  it  could  not  be  annulled  or  even  modified  at  the  will  of  either 
party.  How  much  more  must  a  covenant,  shaped  and  proposed 
by  the  eternal,  changeless  God  stand  in  all  its  elements  unchanged ! 
— The  special  point  to  be  sustained  in  this  argument  is  that  the 
law  of  works,  given  through  Moses,  could  by  no  means  supersede 
the  law  or  covenant  of  promise,  given  to  Abraham  and  his  pos- 
terity. The  priority  of  the  Abrahamic  covenant  places  it  entirely 
above  and  beyond  any  power  of  the  Mosaic  covenant  to  annul  it. 

Add  yet  another  argument  for  the  perpetuity  of  the  covenant 
with  Abraham.  Compared  with  the  covenant  of  works  given 
through  Moses,  its  blessings  come  to  man  on  totally  different  con- 
ditions. For  if  the  inheritance  [of  blessings  under  the  covenant 
with  Abraham]  had  been  a  thing  oflaiv,  it  could  not  have  been  a 
thing  of  promise,  for  law  demands  perfect  obedience  as  its  central 
condition,  but  promise  calls  for  faith  and  contemplates  gratuitous 
mercy  given  to  those  of  faith.  What  is  of  law,  therefore,  is  not 
of  promise ;  but  God  built  his  covenant  with  Abraham  precisely 
upon  promise. 

19.  Wherefore  then  serveth  the  law?  It  was  added  be- 
cause of  transgressions,  till  the  seed  should  come  to  whom 
the  promise  was  made ;  and  it  was  ordained  by  angels  in  the 
hand  of  a  mediator. 

20.  Now  a  mediator  is  not  a  mediator  of  one,  but  God  is 
one. 

This  passage  involves  two  main  questions:  (a.)  What  is  the 
use  of  the  law?  (6.)  What  does  Paul  propose  to  make  out  of 
the  circumstance  that  the  law  came  through  the  hand  of  a  Me- 
diator?    What  is  his  argument  ? 

(a.)  The  law  was  superadded  because  of  transgressions;  to 
show  what  God  required  ;  what  was  morally  right ;  and  conse- 
quently to  give  men  a  clearer,  deeper  sense  of  sin.  This  would 
conduce  to  real  conviction  of  sin  and  of  its  guilt,  and  consequently 
to  show  that  salvation  through  perfect  obedience  to  law  is  hope- 
less, and  that  therefore  all  men  must  need  a  Redeemer  for_ their 
salvation.  For  this  practical  result,  law  was  to  be  in  force  till  the 
Messiah,  the  promised  Seed,  should  come.     Paul  does  not  mean 


38  GxVLATIANS. — CHAP.    III. 

to  deny  that  the  obligation  of  God's  moral  law  is  perpetual; 
but  only  to  say  that  until  ('hrist  should  come,  it  would  serve 
to  convict  men  of  sin  and  so  prepare  them  to  welcome  a  Re- 
deemer. 

(6.)  Tho  second  point:  What  is  Paul's  argument  as  to  the 
"Mediator?"  is  specially  difficult.  It  is  more  than  probable  that 
Paul  fel*^^  the  extreme  delicacy  of  this  poifit  in  its  bearing  upon 
the  sensitive  prejudices  of  the  Jews  in  favor  of  Moses,  and  there- 
fore entirely  forebore  even  to  name  Moses  at  all,  though  he  names 
Abraham  and  keeps  him  constantly  before  the  mind.  But  he  not 
only  avoids  the  mention  of  Moses  by  name,  but  touches  very 
gently  upon  this  argument,  not  more  than  half  developing  its 
cardinal  points  and  its  real  significance.  I  see  not  the  least  rea- 
son to  question  that  his  ultimate  argument  is  this.  The  scheme 
of  faith  came  to  Abraham  from  the  very  lips  of  God  himself  with 
no  "mesites"  ["Mediator"] — no  intervening  man  or  angel  be- 
tween. Over  against  this,  the  law  and  its  whole  system  of  rites 
came  through  angels  and  the  one  mesites,  viz.,  Moses.  The  latter, 
therefore,  must  be  quite  inferior  to  the  former. 

Now  let  it  be  considered:  (1.)  "Mediator"  here  is  not  at  all  in 
the  sense  of  intercessor,  as  when  used  in  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews of  Jesus  Christ  (Heb.  8:  6,  and  9:  15,  and  12:  24,  and 
also  1  Tim.  2 :  5).  It  is  only  a  messenger,  an  organ  of  commu- 
nication between  one  party  and  another;  an  agent  who  passes, 
goes,  from  the  party  sending  to  the  party  receiving  the  supposed 
communication. — (2.)  This  "mesites''  [mediator]  was  doubtless 
Moses. — (3.)  The  law  was  given  from  God  to  men  not  alone 
through  Moses,  but  through  the  ministration  of  angels.  On  this 
point^e  have  the  testimony  of  Stephen  (Acts  7:  38,  53);  of  the 
writer  to  the  Hebrews  (2 :  2),  and  apparently  of  Moses  himself 
(Deut.  33:  2).  But  in  the  giving  of  promise  to  Abraham,  no 
agency  of  angel  or  other  internuncius  [messenger]  is  ever  al- 
luded to.  God  was  the  one  only  revealer.  This  fact  clothed  the 
system  of  salvation  through  faith  and  through  promise  with  sur- 
passing dignity  and  glory. — (4.)  We  must  now  meet  the  question  : 
What  is  the  meaning  of  the  phrase— "A  mediator  is  not  of  one  f 
It  is  unquestionably  elliptical,  requiring  some  word  or  words  to 
be  supplied  to  express  its  sense  clearly.  Perhaps  the  most  ob- 
vious sense  is — a  "mesites"  has  no  place  where  there  is  but  one 
party;  for  by  the  very  significance  of  his  name  and  mission,  he 
goes   between   one  party  and   another,  conveying  some  message 

from  one  to  the  other. The  objections  to  this  explanation  are 

{a.)  that  it  is  too  obvious  to  need  statement,  and  (6.)  that  it  has 
no  apparent  l)caring  on  Paul's  argument. 

A  slight  modification  Avill  bring  out  a  construction  free  from 
these  and  perhaps  from  all  grave  objections.  The  mesites  \ms  no 
place  where  there  is  ])ut  one  party  concerned  in  revealing  the 
message — the  author  Ijvinging  it  hims(df  E.  (/.,  whcti  God 
speakiTto  the  human  soul  with  his  own  voice  directly,  no  mesites 
lias  place;  tliere  is  no  occasion  for  his  services;  he  has  no  mis- 
sion there.     Such  was  the  case  Ijctween  Gud  and  Abrahanu    Here 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.    III.  39 

there  was  one  revealing  party  and  one  only.    This  was  God.    He 
was  the  one. 

21.  7s  the  law  then  against  the  promises  of  God?  God 
forbid :  for  if  there  had  been  a  law  given  -which  could  have 
given  life,  verily  righteousness  should  have  been  by  the  law. 

22.  But  the  scripture  hath  concluded  all  under  sin,  that 
the  promise  by  faith  of  Jesus  Christ  might  be  given  to 
them  that  believe. 

23.  But  before  faitli  came,  we  were  kept  under  the  law, 
shut  up  unto  the  faith  which  should  afterwards  be  revealed. 

Is  law  then  hostile  to  promise,  an  antagonistic  force  working 
against  the  system  of  promise  ?  Never ;  far  from  it !  Both  Avork 
toward  the  same  ultimate  end — the  salvation  of  men — as  you  may 
readily  see,  "  for"  (gar)  if  a  law  had  been  revealed,  able  of  it- 
self to  give  life — the  real  life  of  salvation — and  so  to  become  a  prac- 
ticable agency  for  saving  men,  then,  verily,  justification  might  and 
would  have  been  through  law  alone.  In  that  case  there  would 
be  no  need  of  faith  and  promise  to  bring  salvation  to  men. 

"  But  the  scripture,"  i.  e.,  the  doctrine  of  scripture,  consid- 
ered as  the  voice  of  God  (as  in  v.  8)  hath  shut  up  all  the  race — 
all  mankind  (the  neuter  gender — "all  things" — indicating  here 
the  totality  of  the  race)  under  sin  in  order  to  prepare  the  way 
for  promise  and  faith  in  Jesus  to  be  given  to  believers.  The 
first  word  in  v.  23  should  not  be  "  but" — the  Greek  particle  "  de  " 
being  simply  continuativc,  expanding,  and  reaffirming,  but  not 
suggesting  any  disjunctive  or  antithetic  force.  Read  therefore  : 
Now,  be  \t  considered.  Before  faith  came,  Ave  were  hedged  round 
about,  walled  in  as  prisoners  in  a  dungeon  behind  gates  and  bars, 
imprisoned  in  darkness  and  under  condemnation,  shut  up  to  the  one 
only  hope,  viz.,.  through  the  system  of  faith  in  Jesus  Avhich  was 
ultimately  to  be  revealed. 

24.  Wherefore  the  law  was  our  schoolmaster  to  bring  ils 
unto  Christ,  that  we  might  be  justified  by  faith. 

25.  But  after  that  faith  is  come,  we  are  no  longer  under  a 
schoolmaster. 

Hence  you  will  see  that  "the  law  became  our  schoolmaster" 
("pedagogue"  is  the  Greek  word),  one  who  leads  the  pupil  by 
the  hand,  to  conduct  us  to  Christ  that  we  may  be  justified  by 
faith  in  him.* 

Faith  having  come,  i.  e.,  fully  to  light  so  that  the  system  of 
salvation  through  fiiith  in  Christ  is"  realljr  understood,  we  no 
longer  need  law  as  a  pedagogue  to  bring  us  into  Christian  knoAvl- 

*  The  Greek  student  would  notice  the  peculiar  strength  of  the 
preposition  before  the  word  Christ,  which  is  notTrpo^r  (to  or  unto), but 
t7(T  in  the  sense  of  into  ;  i.  e.,  who  so  leads  him  /o  Christ  that  he  really 
enters  into  him  in  the  sense  of  a  most  intimate  relationship,  real 
communion  and  participation  in  his  fullness  of  blessings. 


40  GALATIANS. — CHAP.    III. 

edge,  since  we  already  have  it.  We  need  not  press  Paul's  words 
to  make  them  signify  that  the  moral  law  is  no  longer  in  force  and 
no  longer  has  a  place  in  the  Christian  system.  He  means  only 
that  it  has  fulfilled  its  function  as  a  pedagogue  to  introduce  us  to 
the  gospel  scheme — that  scheme  being  already  fully  revealed. 

26.  For  ye  are  all  the  children  of  God  by  faith  in  Christ 
Jesus. 

27.  For  as  many  of  you  as  have  been  baptized  into  Christ 
have  put  on  Christ. 

28.  There  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond 
nor  free,  there  is  neither  male  nor  female :  for  ye  are  all 
one  in  Christ  Jesus. 

29.  And  if  ye  be  Christ's,  then  are  ye  Abraham's  seed, 
and  heirs  according  to  the  promise. 

The  argument  indicated  by  the  word  "for"  (gar)  in  v.  26 
would  have  been  more  obvious  if  the  translation  had  marked  dis- 
tinctly the  advance  as  we  progress  from  boys  (paides)  under  a 
pedagogue  to  the  condition  of  sons  (uioi) — (better  than  "  chil- 
dren"), for  we  become  "sons  of  God  "  through  faith  in  Christ 
Jesus,  and  therefore  are  no  longer  boys  in  the  lower  grade  of 
common-school  training.  That  we  are  in  this  sense  "  sons"  is 
plain,  /b/' (gar)  as  many  as  have  been  baptized  into  Christ — i.  e., 
brought  by  baptism  into  full  consecration  and  devotion  to  Christ 
our  Lord — "have  put  on  Christ" — this  expressive  phrase  denot- 
ing that  we  have  become  like  Christ ;  have  imbibed  his  spirit ; 
have  been  transformed  morally  into  his  image,  so  that  we  not 
only  look  like  Christ  in  external  life  but  are  really  like  him  in 
internal  spirit  as  well. 

This  transformation  of  character  brings  all  who  believe  in 
Christ,  not  only  into  one  common  spirit,  but  into  one  common 
brotherhood  of  fellowship,  in  which  there  is  no  longer  any  dis- 
tinction of  Jew  and  Greek,  of  bond  and  free,  of  male  and  female  ; 
for  all  are  one  in  Christ  Jesus.  Being  Christ's  own  sons  by 
means  of  this  complete  moral  transformation  into  his  image 
through  faith,  ye  become  the  true  seed  of  Abraham — he  being  the 
father  of  all  them  that  believe  ;  and  thus  ye  become  heirs  to  all 
the  blessings  promised  to  him  and  to  his  spiritual  posterity. 

The  reader  will  scarcely  need  to  be  reminded  of  the  skill  of 
Paul  in  this  entire  argument,  considering  that  his  opponents — 
those  emissaries  from  Jerusalem  who  had  been  undermining  his 
(Jalatian  converts,  were  Jews — superlatively  Jews — men  whose 
Jewish  prejudices  and  whose  admiration  for  the  great  names  of 
Jewish  liistory  were  unbounded.  It  might  be  difficult  perhaps 
to  say  whether  they  admired  Aln-aham  or  Moses  most.  Now  we 
may  ask,  "What's  in  a  name?"  jNIucli  every  Av^iy  ;  and  Paul 
wrote  as  one  who  kn(!\v  it.  The  name  "Abraham  "  he  tliorouglily 
aitpropriat<;s  to  Iiis  own  use  and  iK'Iujof.  'i'lic  whole  argument 
of  this  chapter  turns  on  the  name  and  character  of  Abraham  as 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.    IV.  41 

the  father  of  all  believers,  the  recipient  of  promises,  "  the  friend 
of  God  " — the  man  with  whom  God  spake  face  to  face  with  no 
intermediate  organ  of  communication.  As  to  the  man  Moses  we 
may  properly  notice  that  Paul  cautiously  refrains  from  using  his 
name  at  all.  He  really  has  many  things  to  say  that  mean  !Moses; 
and  nothing,  apparently,  would  be  more  natural  than  to  bring 
out  his  name  in  antithesis  to  that  of  Abraham;  but  Paul  is  care- 
fully reticent  as  to  this  name.  The  sound  of  it,  he  well  knew, 
might  awaken  slumbering  associations  which  would  seriously  im- 
peril the  force  of  his  argument.  Paul  had  read  human  nature, 
not  in  vain. 

The  points  of  Paul's  argument  in  this  most  argumentative 
chapter  may  be  condensed  and  arranged  thus : 

The  system  of  justification  hy  faith,  in  opposition  to  that  by 
merit  or  works,  mnst  he  true — (1)  Because  the  gifts  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  attest  it  (v.  2-4).  (2)  It  lias  been  sanctioned  by  miracles 
(v.  5).  (3)  Accords  with  the  manner  in  which  Abraham  was 
justified  (v.  6,  7).  (4)  Fulfills  the  predictions  of  Old  Testament 
Scripture,  to  the  efiect  that  salvation  was  to  come  through 
Christ.  (5)  Accords  with  the  entire  teaching  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment as  to  the  justifying  nature  and  power  of  faith.  (6)  Is  the 
only  system  adapted  to  man  as  a  sinner.  Thus  the  argument 
becomes  complete  and  unanswerable. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

The  condition  of  the  covenant  people  before  their  ]\ressiah 
came  is  illustrated  by  the  case  of  a  minor  before  reaching  his 
majority  (v.  1,  2) — mere  boys  and  in  a  certain  condition  of  bond- 
age— until  in  the  fullness  of  time,  God  sent  forth  his  Son  to  re- 
deem them  and  bring  them  into  the  manifest  relation  of  sons 
(3-5) ;  that  they  are  sons  is  shown  by  the  voice  of  God's  Spirit 
in  their  heart,  crying,  "Father"  (v.  6),  so  that  they  are  no 
longer  servants  but  sons  of  God,  and  therefore  heirs  of  God 
through  Christ  (v.  7) ;  having  in  their  former  heathen  life  been 
in  the  bondage  of  superstition  to  idol  gods,  how  could  they  turn 
back  again  to  such  bondage  ?  (v.  8,  9).  Jewish  ceremonial  rites 
are  only  such  bondage,  and  Paul  is  therefore  afraid  for  them 
(v.  10,  11^.  He  refers  to  the  reception  they  gave  him  at  the  first; 
to  the  blessedness  they  then  professed  to  experience,  and  to  their 
strange  relapse  (v.  12-16);  to  the  spirit  of  their  seducers  (v.  17, 
18);  addresses  them  with  aflfectionate  entreaty,  concluding  with 
an  allegorical  illustration  in  which  Hagar  and  Sarah  respectively 
represent  the  children  of  the  bond-woman  and  of  the  free 
(v.  21-31). 


42  GALATIANS. — CHAP.   IV. 

1.  Now  I  say,  Tliat  the  lieir,  as  long  as  he  is  a  child,  dif- 
fereth  nothing  from  a  servant,  though  he  be  lord  of  all; 

2.  But  is  under  tutors  and  governors  until  the  time  ap- 
pointed of  the  father. 

The  one  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  to  illustrate  the  inferior  con- 
dition of  the  Jew  under  the  Mosaic  system  and  the  superior  con- 
dition of  the  Christian  under  the  full  light  of  the  gospel.  It 
will  be  seen  that  this  point  is  thorougldy  vital  to  Paul's  main 
object,  viz.,  to  rebuke  the  folly  of  going  back  from  the  higher 
state  to  the  lower — the  very  thing  which  the  Judaizers  were  per- 
suading the  Galatian  converts  to  do. First,  Paul  calls  their 

attention  very  particularly  to  the  case  of  minors  in  age,  who,  his 
Greek  word  suggests,  are  infants — so  known  sometimes  in  law- 
phrase.  Both  the  law  of  nature  and  of  all  society  set  off  certain 
of  the  first  years  of  human  life  as  a  condition  of  minority, 
nonage,  subordination,  in  which  the  child,  though  born  to  an 
estate  or  even  to  a  throne,  is  yet  for  the  time  in  the  condition  of  a 
servant  only,  with  no  control  of  his  future  estate — no  legitimate 
exercise  of  his  inherited  prerogatives.  Judging  from  his  present 
life,  you  could  not  know  him  from  a  servant.  He  is  under 
guardians  and  stewards  (the  sense  of  Paul's  Greek  words),  men 
who  protect  his  person  from  danger,  his  developing  character 
fr(jm  untoward  influences;  and  also  of  men  who  care  for  the  sup- 
ply of  his  physical  wants — the  economy  of  the  household. 

3.  Even  so  we,  when  we  were  children,  Avere  in  bondage 
under  the  elements  of  the  world: 

4.  But  when  the  fullness  of  the  time  was  come,  God  sent 
forth  his  Son,  made  of  a  woman,  made  under  the  law, 

5.  To  redeem  them  that  were  under  the  law,  that  we 
might  receive  the  adoption  of  sons. 

The  phrase  "the  elements  of  the  world"  should  be  studied  in 
connection  with  v.  9  (below)  and  also  with  Col.  2:  8,  20,  where  the 
same  word  occurs  and  in  the  same  sense.  It  is  used  of  that  system 
of  tutelage  and  training  under  which  (xod  placed  the  covenant  peo 
pie  in  tfieir  minority — a  system  made  up  mainly  of  ceremonial, 
ritual  observances,  good  for  its  own  time  and  purpose,  but  by  no 
means  to  be  desired  after  minority  gives  place  to  the  privileges 
and  prerogatives  of  mature  manhood.  Its  elements  are  of  lower 
and  subordinate  character;    earthly,  not  heavenly;    savoring  of 

])ondage,  not  of  freedom. When  the  time   had  fully  come — 

the  time  fixed  in  the  purpose  of  God;  or,  which  amounts  to  the 
same,  the  time  when  God's  preparatory  work  was  firyshod  and 
the  world  was  ripe  for  the  INIessiah's  coming,  then  God  sent  forth 
liis  Son  to  be  horn'^  (better  than  ''made")  of  woman  by  miracu- 

*"Born"  should  he  the  word,  rather  than  ^'vmdc"  this  l)einjj 
the  precise  sense  of  the  (ireek  word  in  such  a  connection.  See 
John  8 :  58  and  Kom.  1 :  3. 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.   IV.  43 

lous  incarnatrion,  and  to  be  developed  under  the  law  in  the  sense 
of  fulfilling  all  its  righteousness  so  that  he  might  redeem  men 
under  law  and  give  them  the  adoption  of  sons.  The  perfect 
obedience  of  Christ  was  a  condition  precedent  to  his  redemption 
of  his  people.  He  must  needs  fulfill  all  law  that  he  might  be  ac- 
cepted as  the  Redeemer  of  sinful  men. 

In  V.  5  the  two  objects  to  be  accomplished  by  his  human  birth 
and  by  his  perfect  righteousness  are  put  in  the  same  Greek  word 
of  relation  (Iva)  to  the  end  that  (1)  he  might  redeem  those  under 
law,  and  (2)  that  we  might  receive  adoption  as  sons. 

6.  And  because  ye  are  sons,  God  hath  sent  forth  the 
Spirit  of  his  Son  into  your  hearts,  crying,  Abba,  Father. 

7.  Wherefore  thou  art  no  more  a  servant,  but  a  son ;  and 
if  a  son,  then  an  heir  of  God  through  Christ. 

Now  because  ye  are  sons  and  to  show  that  ye  are  such,  God  has 
sent  forth  his  Spirit  as  he  did  also  his  Son  (v.  4)  [in  both  cases 
Paul  uses  the  same  word  for  sending  forth].  This  Spirit  he 
sends  into  your  heart,  inspiring  the  spontaneous  cry,  "Father," 
"Father."  He  begets  the  son-feeling,  and  prompts  to  its  free  ex- 
pression in   this   cry   "  Father." Remarkably  Paul  gives  the 

word  "  Father,"  first  in  the  Aramean  ("abba")  (originally  the 
Hebrew),  and  then  in  the  Greek — which  may  indicate  that  people 
of  every  tongue  are  moved  by  the  same  witnessing  Spirit  to  cry 
unto  God,  my  Father — each  in  his  OAvn  language. No  testi- 
mony to  our  real,  legitimate  sonship  could  be  more  decisive  than 
this  heaven-sent  inspiration  which  causes  such  utterances  of 
the  child-feeling  to  well  up  out  of  the  heart's  sweet  confidence  in 
God. 

No  longer,  therefore,  a  servant,  but  truly  a  son,  thou  art  really 
an  heir  of  God  through  Christ,  brought  at  majority  into  the 
actual  possession  of  all  the  prerogatives  of  sonship  and  heirship. 

Closely  translated,  the  approved  text  of  v.  7  would  read,  "So 

that  thou  art  no  longer  servant  but  son ;  and  if  son,  then  also 
heir  to  God."     The  phrase  is  beautifully  terse  and  expressive. 

The  usage  contemplated  here  as  to  inheritance  is  Roman  rather 
than  Hebrew.     The  Galatians  were  then  a  Roman  province. 

8.  Howbeit  then,  when  ye  knew  not  God,  ye  did  service 
unto  them  which  by  nature  are  no  gods. 

9.  But  now,  after  that  ye  have  known  God,  or  rather  are 
known  of  God,  how  turn  ye  again  to  the  weak  and  beggarly 
elements,  whereunto  ye  desire  again  to  be  in  bondage  ? 

10.  Ye  observe  days,  and  months,  and  times,  and  years. 

11.  I  am  afraid  of  you,  lest  I  have  bestowed  upon  you 
labor  in  vain. 

Paul  puts  in  sharp  contrast  their  state  then  and  now; — then, 
when  in  their  Pagan  superstition,  not   knowing  the   true  God, 


44  GALATIANS. — CHAP.  IV. 

they  were  in  the  bondage  of  slavery  to  things  by  nature  no  gods 
at  all; — and  iioio,  when,  knowing  God — or  more  precisely,  being 
known  by  him,  he  having  revealed  himself  to  them  in  the  light 
of  his  gospel  and  in  the  greatness  of  his  love — how  could  they 
turn    back  to   the   powerless   and  poor  elements  of  .Tadaism  to 

which  they  seem  to  wish   themselves  again  enslaved? Paul 

makes  but  small  account  of  the  point  whether  they  had  been  pre- 
viously Jew  or  Gentile.  In  foct,  some  of  them  had  been  of  one 
class  and  some  of  the  other.  Some  had  been  Gentile  idolaters ; 
others,  Jews.  All  alike  had  been  seduced  by  J udaizing  emissa- 
ries to  turn  to  circumcision  and  legal  doings  for  salvation.  If 
Jews,  how  could  they  turn  back  to  enslave  themselves  anew*  to 
profitless  Judaism— scarcely  better  at  that  time  than  idolatrous 
paganism  ? 

Some  critics  (e.  g.,  Tischendorf,  Meyer,  Alford,  etc.)  prefer  to 
read  v.  10  interrogatively — "Do  ye  observe?"  etc.  So  read,  it 
doubtless  assumes  an  affirmative  answer.  Others,  with  our  au- 
thorized version,  read  it  affirmatively  ;  but  either  way,  it  amounts 
to  the  same  thing.  The  affirmative  reading  seems  to  be  at  least 
unexceptionable,  the  clause  being  probably  introduced  here  as 
presenting  the  fiicts  in  their  case  which  caused  him  so  grave  ap- 
prehensions. The  text  has  nothing  that  indicates  a  question. — — 
The  sense  is — I  learn  that  ye  are  studiously  observing  the  Mosaic 

ritual  in  respect  to  sacred  days,  months,   times,  and  years. 

These  were  festivals  or  fasts ;  days  of  the  new  moon ;  the  sab- 
batic year;  the  year  of  jubilee.  The  list  may  or  may  not  include 
the  Jewish  sal)bath.  The  Mosaic  ritual  would  readily  fill  out 
this  bill  without  including  it. So  much  ritual  observance  ex- 
cited Paul's  gravest  apprehensions  lest  all  his  Christian  labor  in 
their  behalf  should  be  lost. 

12.  Brethren,  I  beseech  you,  be  as  I  am;  for  I  am  as  ye 
are:  ye  have  not  injured  me  at  all. 

13.  Ye  know  how  through  infirmity  of  the  flesh  I  preached 
the  gospel  unto  you  at  the  first. 

14.  And  my  temptation  which  was  in  my  flesh  ye  de- 
spised not,  nor  rejected ;  but  received  rae  as  an  angel  of 
God,  eve?i  as  Christ  Jesus. 

As  to  Judaism  I  pray  you  to  become  as  I  am — dead  to  it  as  a 
scheme  of  justification  before  God;  for  despite  of  all  my  national, 
educational  sympathies  with  that  system,  I  have  utterly  al)an- 
doned  it,  and  have  become  as  ye  are,  putting  myself  upon  your 
ground  as  (J entiles.  What  1  tried  so  long  and  so  thoroughly, 
only  to  find  it  worthless  for  the  great  purposes  of  salvation,  and 
therefore  have  forsaken  it^ltogether  to  come  upon  your  ground, 
— that  I  beg  you  to  abandon  and  come  where  1  am  now. 

In  nothiiig  have  ye  wronged  me  personally.  All  our  former 
relations  to  "each  other  were  entirely  pleasant  and  most  gratify- 

*■  avuOcv, 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.    IV.  45 

ing  to  me,  begetting  deep  love  in  my  heart  for  you. Moreover 

("de")  ye  know  that  it  was  becmtse  q/*  infirmity  of  the  flesh  that 
I  preached  to  you  at  the  first  (or  the  former  time),  being  detained 
among  you  by  illness,  or  by  some  particular  though  not  specified 
"  infirmity." 

The  sense  of  the  Greek  preposition  (6ca,  with  the  accusative) 
must  be — not  that  he  preached  in  a  state  of  much  infirmity — as 
our  authorized  version  might  mean — but  that  his  infirmity  be- 
came the  occasion  of  his  detention  among  them,  which  resulted 
in  his  preaching  there.  Perhaps  he  had  not  intended  to  stop 
with  them  at  all;  or  remained  longer  and  preached  more  than  he 

had  intended,  in  consequence  of  this  "  infirmity." The  Greek 

word  for  "at  the  first"  seems  to  be  equivalent  to — the  first  time, 
and  to  imply  that  he  had  preached  there  twice  and  this  was  the 
first  of  the  two  seasons,  since  otherwise  there  would  be  no  occa- 
sion for  this  discrimination. 

He  alludes  to  this  infirmity  of  the  flesh  for  the  purpose  of  say- 
ing that  they  did  not  despise  or  reject  him  on  account  of  it,  but 
received  him  notwithstanding  it  as  if  he  had  been  an  angel  or 
even  the  Lord  Jesus  himself  What  this  special  infirmity  was, 
Paul  has  nowhere  told  us.  The  utmost  labors  of  critical  specu- 
lation have  left  the  question  where  they  found  it.  It  is  safe 
enough  to  say  that  it  was  very  annoying  to  the  great  apostle 
(see  2  Cor.  12:  7-9),  and  moreover,  was  of  a  sort  that  might,  in 
souls  of  a  hard  texture,  excite,  not  sympathy  but  disgust.  There- 
fore Paul  puts  it  to  their  great  credit  that  they  were  not  repelled 
by  it,  but,  despite  of  it,  gave  him  an  honorable  and  most  hearty 
reception. 

As  to  the  word  next  before  "  temptation,"  there  is  a  conflict  of 
textual  authorities  between  "my"  and  "your."  Tischendorf 
gives  it  "your."  With  "my,"  the  sense  would  be  that  this  in- 
firmity became  a  temptation,  in  the  sense  of  a  great  trial,  to 
himself;  with  "your,"  the  intimation  is  that  while  the  infirmity 
was  his  own,  the  temptation  to  feel  disgust  and  aversion  came 
upon  them.  The  verbs  he  uses  — "Ye  did  not  despise"  (set  at 
naught),  and  "  did  not  spit  on "  (Greek)  favor  the  reading 
"your" — making  the  temptation  theirs,  not  his. 

15.  Where  is  then  the  blessedness  ye  spake  of?  for  I  bear 
you  record,  that,  if  it  had  been  possible,  ye  would  have 
plucked  out  your  own  eyes,  and  have  given  them  to  me. 

16.  Am  I  therefore  become  your  enemy,  because  I  tell 
you  the  truth? 

With  self-gratulation  ye  spake  of  your  experience  then  as  a 
"blessedness;" — where  is  that  blessedness  now?  Ye  then 
thought  yourselves  most  happy  in  my  labors  ;  how  is  it  now  ? — 

Alas!  how  changed! For   I   bear  you   witness  that  then,  ye 

would  have  plucked  out  your  own  eyes  and  given  them  to  me. — — 
The  inference  made  by   some  that  Paul's   infirmity  w^as  of  his 
eyes,  is  quite  gratuitous.     This  expression  is  proverbial  and  gives 
3 


46  GALATIANS. — CHAP.    IV. 

no  reliable  clue  to  the  nature  of  his  infirmity.  Have  I  become 
your  enemy  (in  your  vieAv)  because  I  have  spoken  to  you  the 
truth  ?  That  which  should  have  made  me  doubly  dear,  as  the 
highest  testimony  I  could  give  of  true  friendship — has  this  turned 
you  against  me  as  if  it  proved  me  to  be  your  enemy? 

17.  They  zealously  affect  you,  but  not  well;  yea,  they 
would  exclude  you,  that  ye  might  affect  them. 

18.  But  it  is  good  to  be  zealously  affected  always  in  a 
good  thing,  and  not  only  when  I  am  present  with  you. 

The  authorized  version  here  is  obscure  because  the  word  "af- 
fect" in  the  transitive  sense  as  here  is  obsolete.  The  sense  of 
Paul's  words  seems  to  be — They  profess  and  manifest  a  fiery 
zeal  for  your  welfare,  but  not  honorably  or  benevolently;  for 
their  motive  is  to  bring  you  to  honor  them  as  their  spiritual 
leaders.  They  play  the  religious  demagogue,  to  get  your  patron- 
age.    Genuine  proselyters  are  they,  of  low,  sordid  spirit. 1  say 

nothing  against  true  zeal.  It  is  good  to  have  it  always — every- 
where, in  a  good  cause  and  for  a  worthy  end  ; — always  (I  say) 
and  not  merely  while  I  am  present  with  you.  The  great  warmth 
of  your  manifested  affection  toward  me  then  was  admirable. 
Would  that  ye  might  have  such  zeal  forever ! 

19.  My  little  children,  of  whom  I  travail  in  birth  again 
until  Christ  be  formed  in  you, 

20.  I  desire  to  be  present  with  you  now,  and  to  change 
my  voice ;  for  I  stand  in  doubt  of  you. 

Remembering  their  former  manifested  love,  his  heart  kindles 

again. "i^t»r  whom  "  (better  than  "of")  I  am  again  in  birth 

pangs  of  prayer  for  your  salvation. Noticeably,  the  ultimate 

end  of  his  prayer  is  not  that  they  may  make  profession  of  Christ, 
or  obtain  hope  of  salvation  through  him  ; — but  fundamentally — 
that  Christ  may  be  formed  in  their  heart  and  life;  his  Spirit  be 
breathed  into  them,  and  his  whole  character  reproduced  in 
theirs.  He  sought  nothing  less  than  their  moral  transformation 
into  the  image  and  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ. 

1  have  wished  to  be  present  with  you  now  and  change  my  voice 

to  such  loving  tones  as  would  truly  express  my  heart. That 

the  "change"  referred  to  is  toward  greater  tenderness  rather 
than  toward  greater  severity  can  not  reasonably  be  questioned. 
The  drift  of  the  context  is  in  the  line  of  tenderest  sympathy. 
It  doubtless  grieved  him  that  he  had  been  compelled  to  rebuke 
them  sharply.  If  he  could  be  present  with  them,  his  loving 
t(mes  and  tears  might  obviate  the  necessity  of  these  stern  words. 
His  heart  yearns  for  this  result. 

21.  Tell  me,  ye  that  desire  to  be  under  the  law,  do  ye  not 
hear  the  law? 

22.  For  it  is  written,  that  Abraham  had  two  sons,  the  one 
by  a  bondmaid,  the  other  by  a  free  woman. 


GALATIANS. CHAP.    IV.  47 

23.  But  he  who  was  of  the  bondwoman  was  bom  after  the 
flesh ;  but  he  of  the  free  woman  was  by  promise. 

24.  Which  things  are  an  allegory :  for  these  are  the  two 
covenants ;  the  one  from  the  mount  Sinai,  which  gendereth 
to  bondage,  which  is  Agar. 

25.  For  this  Agar  is  mount  Sinai  in  Arabia,  and  answer- 
eth  to  Jerusalem  which  now  is,  and  is  in  bondage  with  her 
children.  . 

26.  But  Jerusalem  which  is  above  is  free,  w^hich  is  the 
mother  of  us  all. 

27.  For  it  is  written,  Rejoice,  thou  barren  that  bearest 
not;  break  forth  and  cry,  thou  that  travailest  not:  for  the 
desolate  hath  many  more  children  than  she  which  hath  an 
husband. 

This  is  professedly  an  "  allegory."  Certain  historic  facts  in  the 
family  life  of  Abraham  are  taken  up  by  Paul  to  illustrate  the 
two  contrasted  cases — viz.,  of  those  on  the  one  hand  who  were  in 
bondage  to  the  rites  of  the  Mosaic  system  ;  and  on  the  other  of 
those  who  were  free  from  that  bondage  and  in  the  liberty  which 
Christ  gives  his  believing  children. 

Ye  who  make  so  great  account  of  the  old  Hebrew  law,  why  do 
ye  not  read  that  law  intelligently  ?  Look  at  this :  Abraham  had 
two  sons,  Ishmael  and  Isaac;  the  former  by  a  bondwoman;  the 
latter,  by  a  free ;  the  former  being  the  result  of  the  common  pas- 
sion for  oflfepring — the  suggestion  of  Sarah  being  prompted  by 
her  fear  that  Abraham  would  else  never  have  a  son  to  his  name; 
but  the  latter  was  definitely  a  child  of  *promise,  and  of  faith  in 
that  promise.  These  two  very  unlike  births  may  illustrate  to  us 
the  two  covenants  ;  the  former,  developed  on  Mt.  Sinai,  significant 
of  bondage,  i.  e.,  to  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  represendng  the 
present  Jerusalem  and  her  children ;  while  the  latter  represents 
the  upper  Jerusalem,  nobly  free,  the  true  mother  of  all  believers, 
and  the  same  whom  Isaiah  accosted  in  such  lofty  prophetic  words 
of  triumph.  This  reference  is  to  Isa.  54:  1,  which  foreshadows 
the  joy  of  the  gospel  Zion  when  God  shall  multiply  her  spiritual 
sons  and  daughters  from  Gentile  nations. 

Some  special  criticisms  on  particular  points  should  be  sug- 
gested. 

In  V.  22  the  force  of  the  Greek  article  should  have  been  pre- 
served in  the  translation  ;  the  one — not  by  a  bondmaid,  but  by 
"  ^Ae  "  bondmaid ;  the  other  by  the — the  well-known  free  woman. 
In  V.  23,  the  word  "  buf  (Gr.  alia)  is  emphatic: — But,  though 
both  these  were  sons  of  the  same  father,  yet  how  unlike  !     What 

a  contrast  between  them ! In  v.  25,  the  best  critics  agree  that 

Mt.  Sinai  in  Arabic  usage  bore  the  name  Hagar — a  fact  which 

makes  Paul's  allegory  doubly  pertinent.     The  Jerusalem  which 

is   above  ^   in  v.   26  corresponds   remarkably  with   the   "New 

*  Gr.  avc,}. 


48  GALATIANS. — CHAP.    V. 

Jerusalem"  of  the  Revelator  John  (21:  2),  "the  holy  city,  com- 
ing down  from  God  out  of  heaven  ;  "  but  whether  John's  concep- 
tion came  from  Paul,  or  Paul's  from  John,  or  neither,  it  were  vain 
to  conjecture.  In  v.  27,  the  children  of  her  who  had  been  deso- 
late are  declared  to  be  not  only  more  in  number  relatively,  but  to 
be  many,  absolutely. 

28.  Now  we,  brethren,  as  Isaac  was,  are  the  children  of 
promise. 

29.  But  as  then  he  that  w^as  born  after  the  flesh  perse- 
cuted him  that  ivas  horn  after  the  Spirit,  even  so  it  is  now. 

30.  Nevertheless  what  saith  the  scripture  ?  Cast  out  the 
bondwoman  and  her  son :  for  the  son  of  the  bondwoman  shall 
not  be  heir  wdth  the  son  of  the  free  woman. 

31.  So  then,  brethren,  we  are  not  children  of  the  bond- 
woman, but  of  the  free. 

We  under  the  gospel  system  are  like  Isaac,  the  sons  of  the  free- 
woman  and  children  of  promise.  As  there  was  persecution  then 
— Ishmael's  race  and  Esau's,  hostile  to  the  heirs  of  promise — so 
is  it  now  and  so  it  will  be  yet  for  a  season.  They  of  the  flesh 
will  hate,  and  will  harm  if  they  can,  the  sons  of  the  promise.  But, 
as  the  Scripture  said — "  Cast  out  the  bondwoman  "  and  give  her- 
self and  hers  no  joint  heirship  with  the  free  ;  so  will  it  be  now 
and  ever  ;  God  will  show  himself  on  the  side  of  his  free  sons 
and  daughters.     Persecution  shall  not  harm  them  in  the  end. 


»o>»^c 


CHAPTER   V. 

Commencing  here  the  practical  part  of  his  letter,  Paul  exhorts 
that  they  stand  fast  in  their  Christian  liberty  from  Jewish  bond- 
ago  (v.  1);  declares  that  relying  on  circumcision,  they  renouin'e 
(Jlirist  and  can  have  nothing  from  him  (v.  2);  being  bound  to 
obey  the  Mosaic  law  perfectly  if  they  look  to  it  for  justification 
(v.  8);  because  they  have  utterly  fallen  from  the  salvation  M'hich 
comes  through  grace  (v.  4);  that  the  Spirit  inspires  the  hope  of 
righteousness  through  faith  (v.  5) ;  that  it  is  only  faith  working 
by  love  and  not  circumcision,  which  avails  to  give  us  ('hrist  (v.  0) ; 
they  had  been  running  well;  who  had  wrought  this  change? 
(v.  7-9) ;  but  his  confidence  as  to  them  sliouhl  not  fail  (v.  ,10); 
liis  own  persecutions  have  been  due  to  his  j»rcaching  against  (rir- 
cumcision  (v.  11,  12);  let  them  not  abuse  the  liberty  to  which 
tiMi  gospel  had  Ciillcd  them,  but  serve  in  love  (v.  i;j)^whieh  is 
indeed  the  fulfilling  of  the  law  (v.  14) ;  over  against  which  mal- 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.    V.  49 

ice  works  all  mischief  (v.  15);  the  flesh  and  the  Spirit  natu- 
rally antagonistic  (v.  16,  17) ;  but  being  led  by  the  Spirit,  they  live 
so  that  no  law  condemns  them  (v.  18) ;  the  works  of  the  flesh 
indicated  (v.  19-21);  also  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  (v.  22,  23); 
how  Christ's  people  should  and  do  live  (v.  24-26). 

1.  Stand  fast  therefore  in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ 
hath  made  us  free,  and  be  not  entangled  again  with  the 
yoke  of  bondage. 

In  this  verse  textual  authorities  vary  as  to  both  the  words 
and  the  punctuation.  Tischendorf  has  it — In  (or  with)  liberty, 
Christ  has  made  us  free.  Therefore  stand  fast,  and  do  not  alloAV 
yourselves  to  be  held  again  under  the  yoke  of  bondage.  Other 
authorities  give  it  as  in  our  authorized  version,  "  Standfast  then," 
etc.  In  each  reading  the  sense  is  essentially  the  same.  Christ 
had  exempted  them  from  bondage  to  Jewish  rites ;  let  them  vig- 
orously assert  and  maintain  this  liberty. 

2.  Behold,  I  Paul  say  unto  you,  that  if  ye  be  circumcised, 
Christ  shall  profit  you  nothing. 

"Behold" — mark  this;  I  Paul,  on  my  authority  from  God  as 
an  apostle,  declare  to  you  that  if  ye  become  circumcised,  Christ 
shall  avail  you  nothing.  Ye  lose  thenceforth  all  benefit  from 
Christ.  Ye  accept  another  scheme  of  salvation,  and  so  doing, 
ye  disown  Christ,  and  he  will  disown  you.  Ye  can  in  nowise 
blend  together  these  two  opposite  schemes  of  salvation  so  as  to 
avail  yourselves  of  both. 

3.  For  I  testify  again  to  every  man  that  is  circumcised, 
that  he  is  a  debtor  to  do  the  whole  law. 

The  translation  should  not  begin  "  for,"  but  rather  thus  :  Now 
again,  I  testify,  etc.  Paul  speaks  as  a  witness  under  oath,  giv- 
ing his  solemn  testimony.  To  every  man,  not  who  has  been  cir- 
cumcised, but  who  now,  and  from  this  time  onward,  resorts  to  cir- 
cumcision; for  in  time  past  his  light  on  this  point  may  have 
been  but  meager ;  but  under  the  light  I  have  now  given  you,  I 
tell  you  if  any  man  resorts  to  circumcision  as  necessary  for  his 
salvation,  he  binds  himself  to  obey  the  whole  law.  If  he  elects 
salvfltion  by  means  of  law  instead  of  salvation  by  faith  in  Christ, 
he  must  keep  that  law  perfectly,  for  salvation  through  works  of 
law  can  be  had  only  on  this  principle  :  "  Cursed  is  he  that  con- 
tinuetli  not  in  all  things  written  in  the  law  to  do  them." 

4.  Christ  is  become  of  no  effect  unto  you,  whosoever  of 
you  are  justified  by  the  law;  ye  are  fallen  from  grace. 

The  form  of  Paul's  statement  here  is  this :  Ye  have  apostatized 
from  Christ  all  ye  who  seek  justification  in  and  by  the  law:  ye 
have  withdrawn  yourselves  from  Christ  and  made  his  aid  of  no 
avail  to  you.      Ye  have  fallen  out  of  the  system  of  grace ;  have 


60  GALATIANS. — CHAP.  V. 

fallen  below  its  reach,  where  it  can  bless  you  no  more, Thia 

phrase — "  fallen  from  grace  " — is  often  heard  in  the  sense  of  re- 
lapsing from  a  state  of  gracious  acceptance  with  God  by  back- 
sliding in  heart,  or  by  immoralities  of  life.  It  should  be  noted 
that  Paul  means  precisely  the  case  of  those  who  abandon  Christ 
as  their  ground  of  justification,  and  put  in  his  stead  the  system 
of  law  and  ritual  observances.  This  change  of  base  is,  of  course, 
fundamental.  It  discards  grace,  mercy;  and  fiills  back  upon  legal 
doings  for  salvation. 

5.  For  we  through  the  Spirit  wait  for  the  hope  of  right- 
eousness by  faith. 

The  logical  connection  with  what  precedes  ^''for")  I  take  to  be 
this:  Your  system  is  totally  unlike  ours;  ye  look  to  your  works 
for  justification ;  but  we,  all  real  Christians,  being  led  by  the 
Spirit,  look  for  our  justification  through  faith  in  Jesus. 

The  somewhat  difficult  phrase — "  wait  for  the  hope  of  righteous- 
ness by  faith" — admits  of  two  constructions  according  as  we 
construe  "hope  of  righteousness"  to  mean  (a)  the  hoped-for 
rigliteousness ;  or  (b)  the  hope  itself  of  righteousness.  Strictly 
speaking,  hope  is  a  state  of  mind — one  which  looks  with  more  or 
less  expectation  for  future  good.  But  it  may  be  used  here  simply 
to  qualify  "  righteousTiess,"  i.  e.,  to  indicate  that  this  righteous- 
ness (justification)  is  an  object  of  hope.  It  goes  far  to  support 
this  construction  in  the  present  case,  that  the  verb  "wait  for" 
itself  includes  the  sense  of  hope,  expectation;  and  Paul  would 
not  say,  We  hope  for  the  hope.  Better  therefore  is  the  other 
construction — We  wait  earnestly  for  that  hoped-for  righteousness 
wdiich  comes  to  us  through  faith  in  Christ. 

6.  For  in  eTesus  Christ  neither  circumcision  availeth  any 
thing,  nor  uncircumcision ;  but  faith  which  worketh  by  love. 

^  "For"  (this  is  good  logic)  we  know  that  in  Christ,  the  being 
circumcised,  or  the  not  being,  is  of  no  account  whatever;  nothing 
can  avail  but  faith;  and  note  well,  it  must  be  that  faith  which 
begets  love,  and  becomes  spiritually  mighty  through  love.  It  is 
not  a  dead  inoperative  faith  of  which  Paul  speaks  and  in  which 
he  finds  salvation.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  such  fiiith  as  makes  the 
truth  real  to  the  soul,  and  therefore  wakens  it  to  loving  obedience 
with  tlie  energy  of  truth  made  mighty  through  the  S[)irit.  Faith 
in  its  Cliristian  sense  supposes  the  soul  to  accept  tiie  gospid  as 
truly  rev(!aling  God,  and  then  to  put  its  voluntary  powers  into 
harmony  with  this  truth  in  the  spirit  of  oltcdience  and  of  love. 
Ho  doing,  faith  works  mightil}''  to  beget  that  love.  No  test  for 
the  genuineness  of  fiith  can  compare  with  tliis — its  working  en- 
ergetically unto  love,  and,  through  love,  unto  all  obedience. 

7.  Ye  did  run  well ;  who  did  hinder  you  that  ye  should 
not  obey  the  truth  ? 

8.  This  persuasion  comdh  not  of  him  that  callcth  you. 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.  V.  51 

9.  A  little  leaven  leaveneth  the  whole  lump. 

10.  I  have  confidence  in  you  through  the  Lord,  that  ye 
•will  be  none  otherwise  minded:  but  he  that  troubleth  you 
shall  bear  his  judgment,  whosoever  he  be. 

Ye  were  running  well,  when  I  left  you,  and  onward  for  a  sea- 
son. Who  was  it  that  hindered  your  progress  in  this  Christian 
race,  by  breaking  up  your  road  (so  the  original  implies),  so  that 
(to  drop  the  figure)  ye  no  longer  obeyed  the  truth  ? 

This  persuasion  which  drew  you  away  from  obedience  to  gos- 
pel truth  is  another  and  totally  different  scheme  for  salvation. 
It  never  came  from  the  Father  who  first  called  you  by  his  grace. 
Paul  is  wont  to  ascribe  the  call  which  draws  human  souls  to 
Christ,  not  to  the  gospel  preacher,  nor  specially  to  Christ ;  but  to 
God  the  Father. 

In  V.  9  we  have  a  familiar  proverb,  to  denote  a  spreading,  per- 
vading influence,  working  through  society.  Whether  the" word 
"little"  looks  directly  to  the  amount  of  positive  influence  at  the 
start,  or  to  the  number  of  individuals  who  set  it  in  motion,  is 
not  altogether  clear,  nor  is  it  specially  important. Paul  ex- 
presses his  confidence  in  them  through  the  grace  of  the  Lord 
that  he  will  restore  the  wayward,  and  visit  due  retribution  upon 
those  Judaizing  emissaries  who  had  so   disturbed   their  gospel 

faith   and  imperiled  their  salvation. Paul's  words   might  be 

held  to  indicate  that  there  was  but  one  such  emissary;  yet  he 
may  have  meant  only  that  every  such  one,  few  or  many,  must 
bear  his  own  responsibility  before  God. 

11.  And  I,  brethren,  if  I  yet  preach  circumcision,  why  do 
I  yet  suffer  persecution?  then  is  the  offense  of  the  cross 
ceased. 

12.  I  would  they  were  even  cut  off  which  trouble  you. 
Returning  to  Christ   ye    may  incur    persecution   from  those 

bigoted  Jews.  Such  is  my  experience.  They  persecute  me  be- 
cause I  oppose  circumcision.     The   cross  of  Christ  is  an  offense 

to  them. Oh,  that   those  who  thus  "trouble"   you  (unsettle, 

Gr.),  would  sever  themselves  from  all  connection  with  you,  with- 
draw from  your  communion  and  leave  you  to  an  undisturbed  gos- 
pel life.  So,  in  my  view,  should  v.  12  be  construed.  Some  have 
put  a  very  different  sense  upon  Paul's  word,  viz.,  that  he  wished 
they  would  not  only  circumcise  but  mutilate  themselves.  Nothing 
short  of  the  most  peremptory  demand  in  the  word  he  used  can 
justify  such  a  sense — so  abhorrent  to  the  character  of  Paul  and 
to  the  spirit  of  the  gospel.     Such  demand  is  not  here. 

13.  For,  brethren,  ye  have  been  called  unto  liberty;  only 
use  not  liberty  for  an  occasion  to  the  flesh,  but  by  love  serve 
one  another. 

14.  For  all  the  law  is  fulfilled  in  one  word,  even  in  this; 
Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself. 


52  GALATIANS. — CHAP.  V. 

15.  But  if  ye  bite  and  devour  one  another,  take  heed  that 
ye  be  not  consumed  one  of  another. 

A  blessed  call  is  this  indeed  to  the  enjoyment  of  Christian 
li])erty,  exempting  you  from  burdensome,  profitless  bondage  to 
defunct  Judaism,  and  introducing  you  (if  you  will)  into  the 
freedom  of  the  sons  of  God,  through  Christ.  Only  beware  lest 
ye  pervert  this  liberty  into  an  occasion  and  temptation  to  the 
flesh,  llather  let  it  be  enjoyed  under  the  demands  and  the  regu- 
lating influences  of  real  love.  The  only  noble,  blessed  life  is  the 
serving  of  each  other  in  true  love.  Then  ye  are  self-blessed  and 
a  blessing  to  others  to  the  utmost  extent  of  your  power.  For  the 
supreme  moral  law  given  of  God  to  man  is  summarily  comprised 
in  this  one  precept:  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself," 
which  implies  that  ye  estimate  his  happiness  as  ye  do  your  own, 
and  set  your  heart  to  promote  it,  even  as  ye  do  your  own.  Even 
through  Moses,  God  gave  his  law  this  concise  and  beautiful  form 
(Lev.  19:  18).  Jesus  put  the  substance  of  the  second  table  of 
the  decalogue  in  the  same  terms  (Matt.  22 :  39),  and  Paul  to  the 
Romans  (13:  9)  still  repeats  the  same  incomparable  words. 
This  standard  of  measurement  is  always  near  and  well  enough 
known — the  love  we  hear  ourselves.  Such  love,  therefore,  is  what 
the  law  requires  of  us  toward  our  neighbor;  which  implies  that 
we  rejoice  in  his  good  as  we  are  wont  to  in  our  own ;  take  his  in- 
terests into  account  as  we  do  our  own ;  are  careful  never  to  in- 
fringe upon  them,  more  than  upon  our  own,  and  love  to  labor  for 

his  Avelfare  as  we  love  to  work  for  our  own. It  is  very  easy  to 

believe,  indeed,  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  that  this  is  the  real 
spirit  of  the  heavenly  world ;  the  sort  of  love  and  the  measure  of 
the  love  that  reigns  eternally  there,  and  makes  that  world  of  love 

a  world  of  pure  and  perfect  blessedness. But  if  a  spirit  totally 

opposite  to  this  be  indulged;  if,  giving  full  scope  to  selfishness, 
ye  are  biting  and  devouring  your  neighbors,  take  heed  lest  ye  bo 
consumed  by  each  other.  Mutual  biting  and  devouring  must  end 
in  this — the  utter  ruin  of  society;  the  utter  wreck  of  human  hap- 
piness! It  comes  in  the  end  to  social  cannibalism — men  preying 
upon  each  other,  till  nothing  more  remains  to  devour. 

10.  Tli'is  I  say  then,  Walk  in  the  Spirit,  and  ye  shall  not 
fulfill  the  lust  of  the  flesh. 

17.  For  the  flesh  lustcth  against  the  Spirit,  and  the  Sjiirlt 
against  the  flesh  :  and  these  are  contrary  the  one  to  the  other  : 
so  that  ye  can  not  do  the  things  that  ye  would. 

18.  But  if  ye  be  led  of  the  Spirit,  ye  are  not  under  the 
law. 

This  I  would  say  to  you  most  emphatically:  "Walk  in  the  P|)irit, 
and  ye  shall  in  nowise  fulfill  the  lusts  of  the  flesh.  This  will 
save,  you  from  the  power  of  your  (h'slily  lusts.  For  the  Spirit 
of  God  and  the;  flesh  of  man  ar(!  aritagonistie  forces,  each  working 
against  the  other; — the  Spirit  of  God  inspiring  love;  the  flesh  of 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.    V.  53 

man  inspiring  hate,  selfishness — all  low  and  base  passions.  These 
lie  against  each  other  in  hostile  attitude  (so  the  Greek  word  sig- 
nifies)— to  the  result  that  ye  do  not  what  ye  would — so  that  the 
reason  why  your  good  purposes  and  endeavors  so  often  fail  is  to 
be  found  in  this  counter-working  of  human  flesh  against  God's 

Spirit. If  ye  were   indeed  thoroughly  led  by  the  Spirit,  ye 

would  not  be  condemned  under  the  law.  This  I  take  to  be  the 
apostle's  meaning.  J  judge  he  can  not  mean  to  deny  that  Chris- 
tians, however  holy,  are  still  subject  to  the  demands  of  the  divine 
law.  The  clause  must  be  interpreted  in  harmony  with  Paul's 
often  expressed  views  as  to  the  law  of  God,  which  everywhere 
assert  its  authority  over  human  souls ;  e.  g.,  in  v.  14  above. 
Moreover,  this  clause  should  be  placed  by  the  side  of  the  declara- 
tion in  this  very  context  (v.  23),  "Against  such  there  is  no  law" 
— no  law  condemns  such  "fruits  of  the  Spirit." 

What  it  is  to  "  walk  in  the  Spirit,"  it  becomes  supremely  vital 
to  understand  and  to  put  continually  in  practice.  It  assumes  that 
we  labor  to  learn  the  mind  of  the  Spirit;  that  we  study  his  will 
in  his  word ;  that  we  hold  the  heart  joyfully  open  to  his  gentlest 
monitions;  that  we  never  resist  his  manifest  teachings;  that  we 
reverently  honor  his  mission  and  count  it  our  supreme  blessed- 
ness to  be  perpetually  taught  and  led  of  him. 

19.  Now  the  works  of  the  flesh  are  manifest,  which  are 
these:  Adultery,  fornication,  uncleanness,  lasciviousness, 

20.  Idolatry,  withcraft,  hatred,  variance,  emulations, 
wrath,  strife,  seditions,  heresies, 

21.  Envyings,  murders,  drunkenness,  revellings,  and  such 
like :  of  the  which  I  tell  you  before,  as  I  have  also  told  you 
in  time  past,  that  they  which  do  such  things  shall  not  inherit 
the  kingdom  of  God. 

This  enumeration  should  not  be  taken  as  exhaustive,  including 
all  possible  "  works  of  the  flesh,"  but  rather  as  giving  specimens 
for  illustration,  selecting  the  most  prevalent  then  and  there. — 
These  vices  and  such  as  these  are  "works  of  the  flesh" — works 
to  which  man's  fleshly  impulses  impel  him.  They  are  the  result 
of  passions  and  appetites,  working  without  restraint  and  control. 

The  oldest  textual  authorities  omit  "adultery;"  yet  none  can 
question  that  this  is  one  of  the  perpetual  works  of  the  flesh. 
"Fornication"  was  fearfully  prevalent  in  those  regions  of  Asia, 
of  which  prevalence  we  have  incidental  proof  in  the  fact  that  it  is 
specially  condemned  in  the  decision  of  the  great  Jerusalem  Coun- 
cil (Acts  15 :  20)  in  a  document  which  names  no  other  one  of  the 
vices  grouped  together  here  as  "works  of  the  flesh." 

I  forewarn  you  now,  as  I  have  heretofore,  that  those  who  do 
such  things  shall  never  inherit  the  pure  kingdom  of  God.  The 
Eevelator  John,  in  his  description  of  the  heavenly  city,  makes 
this  fact  intensely  emphatic  (Rev.  21 :  8,  27  and  22  :  15).  So  by 
the  very  nature  of  the  case  it  must  forever  be. 


54  GALATIANS. — CHAP.    V. 

22.  Bat  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  long- 
suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith, 

23.  Sleekness,  temperance :  against  such  there  is  no  law. 

While  the  ejffects  attributed  to  the  flesh  are  "  works,"  those  be- 
gotten of  the  Spirit  are  "  fruits."  Works  presuppose  no  other 
a.irency ;  the  base  man's  fleshly  appetites  are  direotly  the  doers ; 
himself  alone  is  responsible.  But  to  express,  the  qualities  born 
in  human  souls  of  the  Spirit,  the  word  "fruits"  is  better,  bein<:; 
more  sui^gestive  of  influences  from  without  himself; — culture  and 
inspiration — of  which  the  blessed  Spirit  of  God  is  the  sole  author. 
All  moral  good  in  lost  souls  comes  from  Him ;  let  all  glory  be 
his  alone,  forever ! 

Of  these  fruits  "love"  stands  legitimately  first — love,  the  center 
and  inspiring  force  of  all  the  rest,  evermore  leading  the  whole 
train  of  Christian  graces. — "Joy"  conies  next  fitly  as  the  legiti- 
mate outcome  of  love.  Never  can  there  be  love  without  joy  as 
its  effect  in  the  soul.  All  true  love  is  joyous. — "Peace"  should 
perhaps  be  taken  here,  not  specially  in  its  relation  to  God — the 
peace  of  mind  Godward  which  does  indeed  "pass  all  understand- 
ing;" but  rather  in  contrast  with  the  "works  of  the  flesh"  named 
above — peace  in  society;  peace  in  the  social  harmony  of  loving 
30uls  in  all  their  most  common  relations — totally  unlike  the 
■wrath,  strife,  collisions,  quarrels,  which  fill  so  large  a  place  in 
the  category  of  "  works  of  the  flesh." — Of  the  rather  unusual 
word  translated  "meekness,"  EUicott  says:  "Something  more 
than  non-irascil)ility  toward  men,  viz.,  a  deep  submission  toward 

God,  and  having  its  seat  in  the  inner  spirit." "Temperance" 

(as  usual  in  the  epistles)  in  the  broad  sense  of  controlling  all  the 
fleshly  appetites  and  passions  ;  and  by  no  means  restricted  to  that 
special  appetite  which  craves  alcoholic  stimulants.  Not  temper- 
ance therefore  in  our  technical  sense  exclusively,  but  in  the  much 
broader  sense  of  self-mastery  in  general — the  subjection  of  every 

fleshly  appetite  to  the  rule  of  reason,  conscience,  and  God. 

Such  fruits  and  those  in  whom  they  appear,  no  law  condemns. 
They  are  in  harmony  with  all  good  law ; — never  in  opposition. 

24.  And  they  that  are  Christ's  have  crucified  the  flesh 
with  the  aflfections  and  lusts. 

25.  If  we  live  in  the  Spirit,  let  us  also  walk  in  the  Spirit. 
20.  Let   us  not  be  desirous  of  vainglory,  provoking  one 

another,  envying  one  another. 

"Have  crucified" — not  merely  intend,  resolve,  endeavor,  to  do 
this;  but  have  done  it.  They  who  arc  "of  Christ  Jesus" — who 
belong  to  him  as  his  adopted  sons  and  daughters,  and  who  con- 
sequently submit  themselves  to  Him  to  be  led  by  his  indwelling 
Spirit — all  these  have  crucified  tlie  flesh,  i.  c,  in  the  special  sense 
of  subjugating,  slaying  unto  death,  its  vile  affections  and  lusts. 
They  have  renounced  the  dominion  of  those  propensities  and 
have  disowned  allegiance  to  those  masters,  and  have  put  them- 


GAL ATIANS.— CHAP.  VI.  55 

selves  under  the  dominion  of  Christ  through  his  Spirit.  To  this 
they  are  mightily  drawn  by  their  love  for  the  Crucified  One. 

"If  we  live  in  the  Spirit,"  he  being  the  author  and  source  of 
our  spiritual  life,  peace,  and  joy,  then  let  us  walk  also  in  that 
Spirit,  conforming  all  our  activities — internal  and  external — to  his 
will.  The  verb  for  walk  is  somewhat  stronger  than  the  other 
word  more  often  used  for  walking  about,  inasmuch  as  it  carries 
the  accessory  sense  of  walking  by  rule,  conforming  one's  self  to  a 
definite  standard;  in  the  present  case,  the  revealed  will  or  law  of 
the  Spirit.  Such  is  the  sense  of  the  same  verb  in  Gal.  6:  16 — 
"  As  many  as  walk  according  to  this  rule,"  etc. 

"  Be  not  vainglorious,"  the  besetting  sin  of  Pharisaism,  and 
therefore,  no  doubt,  manifested  forcibly  by  those  Judaizing  emis- 
saries. The  outcome  of  such  ambition  for  human  glory  would 
be  mutual  provocation  in  the  case  of  the  superior  class;  euA^y  in 
the  bosoms  of  the  inferior.  Ambition  for  pre-eminence  as  it  some- 
times manifests  itself  in  religious  circles  is  an  insidious  and  ter- 
rible poison,  often  showing  itself  in  detraction,  evil-speaking,  or 
in  envy  and  jealousy — all  most  unlike  the  "  fruits  of  the  Spirit." 


»<Kc 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Various  admonitions  and  counsels — as  to  treatment  of  the  erring 
(v.  1) ;  bearing  each  other's  burdens  (v.  2) ;  modest  self-estimation 
(v.  3) ;  based  on  true  self-knowledge  (v.  4) ;  since  every  man  must 
bear  his  own  moral  responsibility  (v.  5)  ;  the  taught  should  share 
earthly  good  with  their  teachers  (v.  6)  ;  and  all  remember  that  the 
reaping  will  be  as  the  sowing  (v.  1,  8) ;  for  the  fruitage  of  well-doing 
is  sure  (v.  9) ;  and  not  least,  as  to  those  of  the  faith  (v.  10) ;  the 
motives  and  spirit  of  their  Judaizing  teachers  noticed  (v.  22,  13); 
in  contrast  with  the  nobler  spirit  of  the  apostle  (v.  14) ;  which  illus- 
trates wherein  lies  the  gospel's  power  (v.  15).  Benedictions  (vs. 
16-18)  close  this  epistle. 

1.  Brethren,  if  a  man  be  overtaken  in  a  fault,  ye  which 
are  spiritual,  restore  such  a  one  in  the  spirit  of  meekness; 
considering  thyself,  lest  thou  also  be  tempted. 

"Overtaken"  suggests  pursuit  by  an  enemy — a  victim  hunted 
down  and  caught  at  last  in  a  moment  of  weakness,  weariness,  or 
unwatchfulness.  There  may  be  force  in  the  apology — "  The  spirit 
indeed  is  willing,  but  the  flesh  is  weak," "Ye  who  are  spirit- 
ual"— but  who  "the  spiritual"  are,  is  sometimes  strangely  misap- 
prehended. Paul  has  given  the  unmistakable  clew  to  his  meaning 
in  his  description  (5:  22,23)  of  "the  fruits  of  the  Spirit."  "The 
spiritual"  are  the  men  of  love  and  peace — the  men  whose  souls 
have  real  sympathy  with  their  tempted,  faltering  brethren,  and 


56  GALATIANS. — CHAP.    VI. 

who  have,  moreover,  such  a  sense  of  their  ovrn  frailty  that  they 
can  feel  the  force  of  the  motive — "  Considering  thyself,  lest  thou 
also  be  tempted."  Let  such  men  set  themselves  to  restore  their 
erring  brethren,  and  do  it  in  the  spirit  of  meekness — not  making 
much  display  of  condescension,  but  rather  in  all  modesty  and 
genuine  humility. 

2.  Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens,  and  so  fulfill  the  law  of 
Christ. 

3.  For  if  a  man  think  himself  to  be  something,  when  he  is 
nothing,  he  deceiveth  himself. 

4.  But  let  every  man  prove  his  own  work,  and  then  shall 
he  have  rejoicing  in  himself  alone,  and  not  in  another. 

5.  For  every  man  shall  bear  his  own  burden. 

The  thoughtful  reader  of  the  authorized  version  will  notice  an 
apparent  discrepancy  between  "  bearing  one  another's  burdens," 
and  "  every  man's  bearing  his  own  "  ; — the  former  an  injunction  ; 
the  latter,  a  fact;  for  how  should  it  be  our  duty  to  bear  other  men's 
burdens  if  really  every  man  must  bear  his  own  ? — Paul's  Greek 
has  a  common  word  for  hearing,  but  not  for  "burden" — a  fact 
which  suggests  that  the  "  burden  "  in  the  two  cases  is  by  no  means 

the  same. The  context  suggests  a  similar  explanation.     The 

"burdens"  in  v.  2  ("bear  ye  one  another's  burdens")  are  those 
of  moral  weakness,  and  doubtless  also  of  physical  infirmity,  such 
as  call  legitimately  for  Christian  sympathy.  Such  sympathy  the 
law  of  Clirist  enjoins :  "  A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you — 
that  ye  love  one  another  "  (Joha  13  :  34).  Also,  "  That  Ave  should 
love  one  another  as  he  gave  us  commandment"  (1  John  3:  23). 
Sec  the  same  precept  expanded  by  Paul  (Rom.  13:8, 10  and  15 :  1 ). 
— Such  bearing  of  one  another's  burdens  is  therefore  most  legit- 
imate, and  pre-eminently  Christian,  by  the  law  of  Christ. 

It  should  be  noticed  that  v.  3  begins  logically  with  "  for  " — the 
logical  connection  being,  supposably,  this:  This  law  of  Christian 
sympathy  fails  to  take  hold  of  proud,  self-conceited  souls.  Poor 
men!  They  know  not  what  spirit  they  are  o^—for  if  a  man,  be- 
ing really  nothing,  thinks  himself  to  be  something,  he  simply  de- 
ceives himself  lie  makes  a  supreme  mistake.  The  really  noble 
qualities  of  character  are  love  overflowing  always  in  Christian 
sympathy;  but  of  these  qualities,  his  self-conceited  soul  knows 
nothing.     All  that  is  really  great  and  noble  in  character,  he  utterly 

lacks. Hence  follows  a  new  exhortation.     Jjct  every  man  prove 

his  own  work — his  own  doings,  and  do  this  on  the  basis  of  what 
they  are  in  themselves — in  broad  distinction  from  judging  of  him- 
self by  comparison  with  others,  setting  his  own  l)etter  doings  over 
against  their  worse.  Such  "  comparing  themselves  among  them- 
K(!lvcs"  Paul  holds  to  be  not  wise  (2  Cor.  10:  12).  So  here;  If 
a  man  will  prove  himself  by  what  himself  actually  is,  he  may 
liave  ground  for  rejoicing  found  in  himscdf  alone,  and  not  drawn 
from  comparison  with  "  the  other"  as  Paul's  words  have  it. It 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.   VI.  57 

is  from  this  point  of  thought  that  the  apostle  proceeds  to  say — 
logically — "  For  every  man  shall  bear  his  own  load  "  * — his  own 
personal  responsibility;  that  is,  to  judge  himself  by  his  own  do- 
ings, and  not  by  comparison  with  somebody  else.  If  a  man  will 
deceive  himself  by  indulging  this  silly  self-conceit  and  pride,  he 
must  bear  his  own  responsibility,  for  no  mortal  can  help  him. 
No  sympathy  of  fellow-mortals  can  take  off  any  part  of  his  load. 
Before  God  he  must  stand  or  fall  on  his  own  personal  charac- 
ter. God  will  not  judge  him  by  comparing  him  with  that  other 
man — never !  Let  him  see  to  it  that  he  estimates  his  own  moral 
character  by  the  same  standard  which  God  has  given  us  notice 
He  shall  use  at  the  final  bar ! 

6.  Let  him  that  is  taught  in  the  word  communicate  unto 
him  that  teacheth  in  all  good  things. 

"Communicate" — not  in  the  sense  of  giving  information  but 
of  sharing  his  own  !'  good  things."  There  being  a  class  of  men 
devoting  themselves  to  teaching  the  sacred  word,  let  the  taught 
impart  of  their  good  things  to  these  teachers.  The  one  class  having 
truth  to  impart  and  the  other  bread,  let  these  latter  give  of  what 
they  have  as  freely  and  benevolently  as  the  former.  God  asks  no 
purer  benevolence,  no  sterner  self-sacrifice,  of  him  who  dispenses 
truth  than  of  him  who  ought  to  communicate  of  his  bread.  This 
doctrine  Paul  inculcates  often,  albeit,  sometimes,  wishing  for 
special  reasons  to  be  quite  independent  of  men  given  to  slander 
atnd  carping,  he  chose  to  make  tents  for  his  living,  or  to  rob 
other  churches,   taking  w^ages  of   them,  in  order   to  do  unpaid 

service  to  croaking  people. But  Paul  evermore  maintained  the 

doctrine  put  here.     (See  1  Cor.  9:  7-14  and  Rom.  15:  27.) 

7.  Be  not  deceived ;  God  is  not  mocked :  for  whatsoever 
a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap. 

8.  For  he  that  soweth  to  his  flesh  shall  of  the  flesh  reap 
corruption;  but  he  that  soweth  to  the  Spirit  shall  of  the 
Spirit  reap  life  everlasting. 

I  see  no  reason  to  question  that  the  thoughts  presented  here 
are  suggested  by  the  case  put  in  v.  6. — this  being  a  broader  gen- 
eralization of  that  principle.  You  may  deceive  men,  but  God 
you  can  not  deceive.  God  will  not  suffer  himself  to  be  mocked. 
Paul's  word  suggests  the  turning  up  of  the  nose  in  contempt! 
Woe  be  to  the  man  wdio  indulges  himself  in  such  a  spirit  toward 

the  Infinite  God! The  seed  each  man  soavs  will  bear  its  own 

fruit  for  his  reaping.  Let  him  not  expect  to  reap  after  another 
man's  sowing,  but  rather  be  very  sure  that  God  will  hold  him  to 
his  own  harvest — from  the  sowing  by  his  own  hand.  Sowing  to 
the  flesh — under  its  impulses  and  for  its  ends— he  will  reap  only 
corruption.  Sowing  in  like  manner  under  the  impulses  of  the 
Spirit,  in  obedience  to  its  behests,  his  reaping  will  be  life  ever- 
lasting.    What  can  be  more  reasonable?    What  more  certain? 


58  GALATIANS. — CHAP.    VI. 

9.  And  let  us  not  be  weary  in  well  doing:  for  in  due 
season  we  shall  reap,  if  we  faint  not. 

10.  As  we  have  therefore  opportunity,  let  us  do  good 
unto  all  men,  especially  unto  them  who  are  of  the  household 
of  faith. 

In  doing  good,  never  lose  heart ;  be  always  hopeful  and  never 
discouraged;  for  in  due  season — in  God's  own  good  time — the 
reaping  hour  will  come,  and  will  be  none  the  less  joyous  for  the 
possibly  long  delay.  Especially  is  there  every  reason  for  hope- 
fulness in  etforts  for  doing  good  to  those  of  the  household  of 
faith.  Remember  all  these  are  of  one  common  family,  one  house- 
hold, having  therefore  a  rightful  claim  upon  the  sympathy  and 
help  of  the  Avhole  brotherhood. 

11.  Ye  see  how  large  a  letter  I  have  written  unto  you 
with  mine  own  hand. 

On  this  verse  critical  opinions  vary  between  these  two  con- 
structions; (a.)  How  long  an  epistle;  (h.)  With  how  large  char- 
acters I  have  written.  The  former  is  supported  by  its  more  per- 
tinent sense ;  the  latter  by  the  current  usa^e  of  his  words.  The 
major  portion  of  critics,  accurate  in  lexicography,  give  their 
voice  for  the  latter. 

That  Paul  usually  wrote  epistles  by  the  hand  of  an  amanuen- 
sis— the  salutation  only  with  his  own — is  unquestioned.  Tertius 
wrote  Romans,  (Rom.  16:  22).  In  three  cases  Paul  notes  the 
fact  that  the  salutation  was  ])y  his  own  hand  (1  Cor.  ]6:  21  and 
Col.  4:  18  and  2  Thess.  3:  17).  Hence  there  seems  no  good  rea- 
son apparent  for  his  calling  attention  to  the  large  character  of 
his  own  hand-writing.  But  if,  contrary  to  his  usual  practice,  he 
wrote  the  entire  epistle  with  his  own  hand,  he  might  well  appeal 
to  this  fiict  as  proof  of  profound  interest  and  perhaps,  of  personal 
self-sacrifice.  But  on  the  other  hand,  the  demands  of  usage  as  to 
the  sense  of  the  words  are  not  to  be  lightly  set  aside,  and  in  the 
present  case  are  unquestionably  very  strong.  The  point,  how- 
ever, has  no  grave  importance. 

12.  As  many  as  desire  to  make  a  fair  shew  in  the  flesh, 
they  constrain  you  to  be  circumcised ;  only  lest  they  should 
suffer  persecution  for  the  cross  of  Ciirist. 

18.  For  neither  they  themselves  who  are  circumcised  keep 
the  law;  but  de.sire  to  have  you  circumcised,  that  they  may 
glory  in  your  flesh. 

A  fitrong  national  Jewish  fooling  amounting  to  a  public  senti- 
ment intensely  earnest,  in  favor  of  Judaism,  must  bo  assumed  as 
prevalent  in  Judca  at  least,  and,  though  with  somewhat  loss 
strength,  among  tiie  dispersed  of  their  nation.  This  is  re(iuiHite 
to  account  for  tlie  "  fair  show  in  the  llosh,"  and  for  the  "  glory- 
ing in  your  flesh"  which  appear  as  motives  here.     These  emis- 


GALATIANS. — CHAP.    VI.  59 

earies  of  Judaism  (Paul  would  say)  would  fain  make  capital  for 
themselves  at  home ;  would  avoid  being  persecuted  (as  1  am)  for 
the  cross  of  Christ;  and  though  they  do  not  themselves  observe 
the  law,  would  have  the  credit  of  making  converts  to  a  system 
which  themselves  personally  disregard. 

14.  But  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory,  save  in  the  cross 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  the  world  is  crucified 
unto  me,  and  I  unto  the  world. 

15.  For  in  Christ  Jesus  neither  circumcision  availeth 
any  thing,  nor  uncircumcision,  but  a  new  creature. 

Paul  disdains  such  truckling  time-serving  hypocrisy.  Such 
glorying  in  forcing  circumcision  upon  Gentile  converts  for  the 
sake  of  honor  at  Jerusalem  is  beneath  his  contempt.  Nobly  does 
he  declare — God  forbid  that  I  should  glory  save  in  the  cross  of 
our  Lord!  Be  it  so  that  this  cross  is  the  badge  of  disgrace 
throughout  the  Roman  world,  it  shall  be  in  my  esteem  the  badge 
of  glory.  By  that  cross  the  world  is  slain  to  me,  and  I  am  dead 
to  the  world. For  in  Christ  neither  circumcision  nor  uncir- 
cumcision count  any  thing;  nothing  has  value  but  the  new  cre- 
ation— the  new  life  unto  which  souls  are  born  through  the  Spirit. 

16.  And  as  many  as  walk  according  to  this  rule,  peace  be 
on  them,  and  mercy,  and  upon  the  Israel  of  God. 

17.  From  henceforth  let  no  man  trouble  me :  for  I  bear 
in  my  body  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

18.  Brethren,  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with 
your  spirit.     Amen. 

To  all  who  walk  by  this  rule — according  to  these  principles — 
let  there  be  peace  and  mercy,  yea  even  upon  the  whole  true  Is- 
rael— the  Israel  that  really  is  of  God.  Here  "  the  Israel  of  God  " 
are  put  in  designed  and  strong  contrast  with  the  Israel  that  were 
then  after  the  flesh — whom  Paul  had  but  too  much  occasion  to 
know.     This  contrast  was  every  way  pertinent  to  the  purpose  of 

this  epistle. Evermore  hereafter,  let  no  man  trouble  me  (as 

these  opponents  and  enemies  of  the  gospel  I  preach  have  done) 
for  I  bear  in  my  body  the  marks  of  my  Lord — said  probably 
with  some  allusion  to  the  body-marks  imprinted  upon  slaves  to 
identify  them  to  their  masters.  Such  marks  Paul  had  more  than 
once  received  from  the  scourge  of  persecution.  Therefore,  he 
says,  let  my  apostleship  from  Christ  be  never  more  called  in 
question !     My  scourge-scars  are  my  proofs !     In  them  I  glory  ! 

And  so,  in  the  loftiest  tones  of  Christian  heroism  and  in  the 
undying  fervors  of  Christian  love  he  breathes  forth  his  farewell 
benedictions  and  closes  this  grand  epistle. 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  EPHESIANS, 


INTRODUCTION. 

An  introduction  to  tliis  epistle,  to  be  lielpful  to  its  read- 
ers, should  treat — 
I.    Of  Ephes,us ; 
II.  Of  the  labors  of  Paul  in  that  city ; 

III.  Of  the  somewhat  disputed  point — Was  this  epistle 
really  written  to  the  church  at  Ephesus  ? 

IV.  Of  the  place  where  and  of  the  time  ivhen  it  was  written ; 
V.  Of  its  adaptations  and  purposes. 

I.  Ephesus,  now  and  for  many  centuries  past  in  ruins, 
was  in  the  age  of  Paul  one  of  the  greatest  cities  of  Asia 
Minor,  and  the  chief  in  the  province  of  Ionia.  It  lay  on 
the  western  coast  of  Asia,  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Cayster, 
near  its  mouth,  and  thirty  miles  south  of  Smyrna.  Com- 
mercially, it  had  easy  communication  by  water  with  Corinth 
on  the  west  and  with  the  various  marts  of  maritime  com- 
merce on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Great  Sea ;  and  by  land, 
with  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  mighty  East.  Its 
population  in  the  apostolic  age  may  be  roughly  estimated 
from  the  ruins  of  that  immense  *'  theater"  which  appears  in 
Luke's  history  (Acts  19  :  31),  capacious  enough  to  seat  thirty 
thousand  men.  Its  magnificence  was  heiglitened  by  its 
being  the  great  center  for  the  worship  of  Diana,  of  whom 
they  were  proud  to  say — "  Whom  all  Asia  and  the  Avorld 
worshipeth"  (Acts  19:  27).  "Her  temple,  425  feet  in 
length  by  220  in  width,  was  adorned  with  a  colonnade  of  127 
columns  of  Parian  n"uar])le  60  feet  in  height,  each  column 
the  gift  of  a  prince — a  fact  which  goes  to  show  the  wide  ex- 
tent of  this  })articular  form  of  idolatry.  It  was  of  old  ac- 
counted one  of  the  seven  wonders  of  the  world.  The  social 
and  immoral  forces  of  her  Diana  worship  upon  Ephesus  were 
heightened  by  city  and  national  pride  in  such  magnificence; 
by  the  consideration  of  being  the  center  of  a  system  so  vast 

(GO) 


INTRODUCTION.  61 

and  far-reaching ;  by  the  wealth  it  brought  to  coppersmiths 
and  artisans — the  makers  and  venders  of  silver  shrines  for 
Diana  ;  by  the  "  books"  which  taught  their  magic  arts ;  and 
not  least,  by  the  license  it  gave  to  the  vices  it  fostered,  and 
by  the  powerful  appeal  it  was  evermore  making  to  the  su- 
perstitions and  to  the  baser  lusts  of  mankind.  Under  all 
these  influences,  idolatry  had  intrenched  itself  in  this  great 
city,  prepared  to  bid  defiance  to  any  assailant.  If  Paul  had 
been  capable  of  fear  and  given  to  faltering  before  obstacle 
or  foe,  he  would  have  passed  Ephesus  by.  But  never  a 
thought  had  he  of  leaving  out  of  his  great  missionary  plan 
a  city  where  so  many  souls  of  men  were  congregated,  and 
from  whence  so  much  Christian  power  might  go  forth  abroad 
over  other  cities,  provinces,  and  realms. 

II.  Of  Paul's  labors  in  this  city,  Luke  has  given  a  very 
brief  sketch  (Acts  18-20  chap.)  Paul  had  been  at  Corinth, 
introducing  the  gospel  there  (Acts  18 :  1-18).  Thence  with 
Priscilla  and  Aquila  he  came  to  Ephesus,  and  there  began 
liis  gospel  work  as  usual  in  a  synagogue  of  Jews.  A  favor- 
able reception  could  not  detain  him  long  just  then,  for  his 
heart  was  set  upon  being  in  Jerusalem  at  the  ensuing  Pen- 
tecost (of  A.  D.  54).  However,  he  left  his  friends  above 
named  to  carry  forward  the  work  there  during  his  absence ; 
hastened  to  Jerusalem  ;  but  soon  returned  and  sat  down  to 
earnest  gospel  work  in  that  great  and  wicked  city.  Mean- 
time, Priscilla  and  Aquila  had  been  strengthened  by  the 
accession  of  Apollos,  to  whose  history  Luke  devotes  a  brief 
paragraph.  He  next  notes  the  fact  that  Paul  found  at 
Ephesus  a  band  of  twelve  men  who  had  been  disciples  of 
John  the  Baptist,  and  who,  to  that  hour,  had  advanced  no 
further.  Their  minds  were  in  that  very  state  of  preparation 
which  John's  mission  contemplated.  Hence  they  seem  to 
have  been  prominent  among  the  first  converts  to  the  infant 
church  at  Ephesus.  For  three  months  Paul  prosecuted  his 
work  in  the  synagogue  gathering  some  disciples,  but  ulti- 
mately incurring  fierce  prejudice  and  opposition  from  "di- 
vers" who  were  hardened  and  would  not  believe.  There- 
fore, withdrawing  from  them,  he  made  a  gospel  stand  for 
two  years'  daily  preaching  and  discussion  "in  the  school  of 
one  Tyrannus."  The  result  of  this  protracted  effort  was 
such  that  "all  they  who  dwelt  in  Asia"  (so  called)  "heard 
the  word  of  the  Lord  Jesus"  (19 :  10).— If  to  this  record 
of  Paul's  public  labors  by  Luke,  we  add  his  own  testimony 
as  given  to  the  elders  of  that  church  whom  he  met  by  ap- 


62  INTRODUCTION. 

pointment  at  Miletus  (twenty-seven  miles  south  of  Ephesus) 
(Acts  20:  17-38),  that  *'by  the  space  of  three  years  he 
ceased  not  to  warn  every  one  night  and  day  with  tears,"  we 
may  have  some  conception  of  what  earnest  gospel  labor 
means  as  shown  in  the  burning  zeal,  the  intense  love  for 
souls,  and  the  unsparing  toil  of  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gen- 
tiles. 

With  miracles  also  Paul  confronted  and  put  to  silence  and 
to  shame  the  magicians  and  exorcists  of  the  city,  and  made 
great  inroads  ui)on  their  sway  over  a  superstitious  people. 
Through  penitence  or  fear,  multitudes  renounced  their  pre- 
tensions to  magic  and  made  a  bonfire  of  the  books  which 
taught  those  arts,  to  the  estimated  value  of  ''  fifty  thousand 
pieces  of  silver."  ["  These  pieces  are  commonly  supjwsed  to 
be  the  Attic  drachma,  varying  in  value  from  fifteen  to  sev- 
enteen cents,  making  a  total  of  at  least  seven  or  eight  thou- 
sand dollars." — Alex.~\  The  magnitude  of  this  sum  may 
measure  to  us  the  power  of  gospel  truth  which  must  have 
pervaded  large  masses  of  the  people. 

Ultimately  this  rapid  growth  and  wide  prevalence  of  the 
gospel's  power  alarmed  the  whole  fraternity  of  silversmiths 
and  craftsmen  whose  bread  and  fame  were  in  peril ;  a  fierce, 
ungovernable  mob  resulted ;  and  Paul  was  compelled  to 
evade  the  stoi-m,  following  the  wise  counsel  of  the  Lord : 
*' If  they  persecute  you  in  one  city,  flee  ye  to  another." — 
The  church  however  was  planted  there,  and  the  powers  of 
hell  could  not  (at  once)  prevail  against  it.  But  Paul's  per- 
sonal labors  there  came  abruptly  to  a  close. 

No  reader  should  suppose  that  he  knows  Paul,  his  Chris- 
tian spirit,  and  his  intense  and  mighty  labors  in  the  gospel, 
till  he  has  read  carefully  the  wonderfully  modest  yet  thrilling 
record  of  his  words  to  the  elders  of  this  church  wfiom  he  met 
at  Miletus. — "Ye  know  (said  he)  how  I  have  been  with  you 
at  all  seasons,  serving  the  Lord  (not  myself  or  any  man), 
with  humility  of  mind  and  with  many  tears  and  tempta- 
tions"— which  noticeably  he  traces  not  to  the  tremendous 
influences  of  Diana-worship  there,  but  to  *'the  lying-in-wait 
of  the  Jews" — those  everywhere  malignant,  artful,  persistent 
opponents  of  his  gospel  work ;  "how  I  kept  back  nothing 
that  was  profita])]e,  but  showed  and  taught  you  publicly  and 
from  house  to  house." — This  was  the  way  of  his  work — some- 
times in  the  public  assembly,  and  then  at  their  homes,  find- 
ing men  where  he  could  and  never  wearied  of  his  work. — 
What  he  taught  them,  he  put  in  brief  words:   "Testifying 


INTEODUCTION.  63 

both  to  Jews  and  Greeks  repentance  toward  God  and  faith 
toward  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  But  the  whole  record  hes 
before  every  Bible  reader  and  need  not  be  repeated  here. 

Such  then  were  Paul's  labors  in  that  great  city,  protracted 
through  three  years  (A.  D.  54-57). 

III.  We  meet  the  question  discussed  somewhat  among 
modern  critics ;  viz. ,  Whether  this  epistle  was  really  ad- 
dressed to  this  church  at  Ephesus. 

The  question  is  not  whether  Paul  w^rote  it ;  this  point  is 
not  disputed ;  but  to  whom  was  it  addressed  ? — On  a  question 
of  this  nature,  my  plan  admits  of  only  the  briefest  discussion. 

Naturally  the  sources  of  proof  are  twofold  ;  (1.)  Exter- 
nal; (2.)  Internal;  the  former,  the  authorities  for  the  text ; 
the  latter,  the  things  said  or  omitted  in  the  epistle  itself. 

1.  The  external  authorities  are  somewhat  diverse  and 
conflicting.  According  to  Tischendorf  the  three  oldest  man- 
uscripts (S.  V.  A.)  put  the  general  heading  "  To  the  Ephe- 
sians  ;  "  but  are  not  unanimous  as  to  the  words  "  in  Ephe- 
sus," in  V.  1.  Ellicott,  one  of  the  most  thorough  and  can- 
did of  critics,  states  his  opinion  thus:  ''That  the  epistle  was 
addressed  to  the  church  at  Ephesus  seems  scarcely  open  to 
serious  doubt.  Both  the  critical  arguments  and  the  nearly 
unanimous  consent  of  the  early  church  are  so  decidedly  in 
favor  of  it  that  we  scarcely  seem  warranted  in  calling  in 
question  a  statement  so  strongly  supported."  It  should  be 
noticed  that  the  adverse  authorities  for  the  text  are  simply 
negative;  never  positive ;  ^.  e.,  some  of  them  fail  to  say 
"  in  Ephesus"  (v.  1),  but  none  of  them  put  any  other  des- 
tination in  its  place.  Not  one  assigns  it  to  any  church  or 
place  other  than  Ephesus. 

2.  So  of  the  internal  testimonies;  there  is  an  obvious 
omission  of  personal  greetings,  such  as  we  find  in  most  of 
Paul's  epistles.  But  we  may  account  for  this  omission  satis- 
factorily upon  these  two  grounds:  (1.)  That  Paul  sent  it  by 
the  hand  of  Tychicus,  who  was  very  probably  a  citizen  of 
Ephesus  and  entirely  competent  to  convey  all  personal  salu- 
tations by  word  of  mouth;  and  (2.)  That  this  epistle  may 
have  been  intended  by  Paul,  not  for  the  Ephesian  church 
only,  but  for  other  churches,  contiguous  to  them  as  well,  to 
whom  Tychicus  might  convey  it.  A  circular  letter  is  cer- 
tainly supposable.  So  designed,  it  would  wisely  omit  what- 
ever would  be  personal  to  Ephesus  only.  It  is  generally 
agreed  that  the  Epistle  to  Colosse  was  sent  by  the  same  hand 
(Col.  4 :  7,  8)  at  the  same  time.     As  Paul  trusted  his  friend 


64  INTRODUCTION. 

Tychicus  to  tell  the  Colossians  "all  his  state,"  so  he  may 
have  committed  to  him  the  same  service  for  his  Ephesiau 
brethren. — Moreover,  no  positive  internal  evidence  has  ever 
been  adduced  to  show  that  this  epistle  was  written  for  any 
other  church  than  that  at  Ephesus.  The  objection  on  inter- 
nal grounds  is  only  that  there  is  not  enough  of  personal  al- 
lusion to  that  church — a  very  weak  objection,  especially  when 
we  consider  the  probability  of  its  having  been  intended  for 
the  use  of  other  churches  also.  And  yet  further ;  this 
epistle  is  just  as  barren  of  greetings  to  Laodicea  as  to  Ephe- 
sus. If  that  barrenness  proves  that  he  did  not  address  it  to 
Ephesus,  it  proves  equally  that  he  never  addressed  it  to  any 
church — not  to  say  that  he  never  wrote  it  at  all,  for  it  differs 
from  his  customary  method.  Thus  criticism  runs  itself  into 
absurdities.  In  my  judgment,  no  reader  need  feel  disturbed 
by  any  adverse  criticism  against  the  address  of  this  epistle 
to  the'  church  at  Ephesus. 

IV.  In  the  questions,  WJien  and  where  w^'itten,  fortunately, 
there  seems  no  ground  for  doubt.  All  agree  to  locate  its 
writing  as  to  jilace,  at  Rome,  and  as  to  time,  during  his  two 
years'  imprisonment  there  awaiting  the  issue  of  his  appeal  to 
CfBsar— I.  e.,  about  A.  D.  61  or  62.  It  thus  falls  in  time 
into  the  third  group  of  his  epistles,  classed  with  that  to  the 
Colossians,  that  to  Philemon,  and  that  to  the  Philippians. 

V.  Of  its  adaptations  and  objects  there  is  nothing  in  tlie 
epistle  to  indicate  that  Paul  had  any  very  special  object  iii 
this  writing — nothing  so  special  as  that  which  occasioned  his 
waiting  to  the  Galatians,  or  to  the  Corinthians.  The  epistle 
is  rather  the  outflowing  of  a  loving  heart,  of  a  pastor's  solic- 
itude for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  his  flock;  or,  to  go  yet 
deeper,  the  outflow  of  thoughts  that  welled  up  in  his  soul  as  iii 
his  lone  confinement  in  his  Roman  prison,  he  recalled  the 
scenes  of  his  three  years'  labor  there  ;  the  depth  of  idolatrous 
debasement  in  which  he  found  them  ;  the  great  mercy  of 
God  in  their  redemption ;  how  that  mercy  must  be  traced 
back  to  the  pure  love  of  the  Father  ;  to  his  eternal  purpose 
into  which  there  entered  no  element  or  thought  of  human 
merit;  how  all  was  due  to  a  divine  purpose  of  grace  which 
was  in  this  sense  sovereign — that  it  rested  on  nothing  ante- 
cedently good  in  the  recipients  of  his  favor.  Associated  with 
this  conception  of  God's  foregoing  grace  and  mercy,  there 
were  other  conceptions  of  great  depths  of  love,  passing  all 
measure  by  luiman  thought,  and  of  marvelous  resources  of 
'power  to  save.     However  deeply  these  grand  conceptions  of 


INTRODUCTION.  65 

God  and  of  his  gospel  may  have  been  wrought  into  the  very 
soul  of  Paul  by  his  own  conversion,  it  is  obvious  enough 
that  they  may  have  been  suggested  afresh  and  delightfully 
illustrated  to  his  personal  contemplation  by  his  reminiscences 
of  experience  at  Ephesus.  For  he  remembered  how  in  that 
great  city  he  had  been  brought  fiice  to  face  with  the  fiercest 
powers  of  Pagan  idolatry  and  superstition  ;  how,  humanly 
speaking,  he  had  fought  with  wild  beasts  in  the  terrible 
arena  of  blood  and  death  ;  how  Jew  and  Greek  had  with- 
stood his  gospel  work  with  sternest  antagonism;  and  how  he 
had  found  in  many  a  toilsome  hour  that  his  wrestling  was 
not  merely  with  flesh  and  blood,  but  with  the  principalities 
and  powers  of  hell  itself  But,  to  his  joy,  God  had  proved 
himself  there  to  be  mightier  to  save  than  they  all  to  destroy. 
Oh,  how  gloriously  did  those  experiences  open  to  his  great  and 
receptive  mind  the  unsearchable  riches  of  love  and  of  power 
in  Christ  Jesus !  Sublimer  words  on  these  great  themes  have 
rarely  if  ever  fallen  from  human  lips.  Apparently  he  put 
them  on  paper  and  sent  them  to  his  beloved  converts  at 
Ephesus  because  they  were  so  precious  to  his  own  soul,  be- 
cause they  had  proved  so  I'efreshing  to  his  spirit,  both  dur- 
ing those  three  years  of  toil,  and  during  these  later  years  of 
enforced  seclusion,  yet  of  sweet  reflection  and  remembrance, 
in  which  even  to-day  it  is  the  Christian  reader's  joy  to  sym- 
pathize. Moreover  Paul  could  not  forget  that  his  Ephesian 
converts  were  yet  in  the  heat  of  battle  and  would  doubtless 
need  the  sustaining  support  of  such  views  of  God's  great  love 
and  of  Christ's  power  to  save. 

Collateral  themes  come  in  to  fill  out  this  sublime  ej)istle, 
none  lacking  adaptation  ;  some,  we  can  readily  see  pecu- 
liarly adapted  to  instruct,  guide,  and  inspire  his  spiritual 
children  there.  Such  were  the  wisdom  and  broad  catholic- 
ity of  the  gospel  scheme  which  brought  Gentile  as  well  as 
Jew  within  the  pale  of  its  equal  blessings  ;  the  marvelous 
dispensation  of  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  which  unity 
and  diversity  were  blended  most  sweetly  together,  and  every 
variety  of  natural  gifts  and  endowments  were  utilized  to 
their  utmost  extent  under  the  diverse  ministrations  of  the 
Spirit. 

Such  views  of  the  gospel  scheme  and  of  the  love  and  wis- 
dom from  which  they  spring  culminate  under  Paul's  hand  to 
practical  results.  Let  what  they  learn  of  Christ  -inspire 
them  to  cherish  his  spirit  in  their  own  souls ;  to  put  on  his 
pure  and  perfect  character ;  to  walk  in  love  to  all  and  malice 


QQ  INTRODUCTION. 

to  none;  to  rebuke  the  wickedness  that  filled  their  great  city, 
by  the  irreproachable  purity  of  their  lives  and  the  unruffled 
sweetness  of  their  temper. 

Such  counsels  fitly  assume  the  form  of  specific  adaptation 
to  various  classes  in  society;  to  wives  and  husbands;  to 
children  and  parents;  to  servants  and  to  their  masters: — 
culminating  finally  in  the  thought  so  naturally  suggested  by 
his  reminiscences  of  Ephesus — that  pre-eminently  there, 
Christian  life  must  be  a  drawn  fight — a  life-long  battle  with 
the  devil  and  all  his  hosts  and  all  his  wiles.  Therefore,  let 
them  put  on  the  very  panoply  of  God ; — girdle,  breastplate, 
greaves,  the  gospel  sandals,  the  shield  of  faith,  helmet, 
sword,  and,  mightier  than  all,  prayer.  So  should  the  battle 
be  unto  victory  and  triumph. 

Thus  this  epistle  exhibits  manifold  adaptations  to  Ephe- 
sus, and  a  group  of  purposes  and  objects  worthy  of  its  au- 
thor. 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  EPHESIANS. 


CHAPTER  I. 


The  usual  introduction,  address,  and  salutations  appear  (v.  1,2); 
he  calls  men  to  praise  God  for  his  unmeasured  spiritual  bless- 
ings through  Christ  Jesus  (v.  3),  traceable  to  God's  eternal 
choice  of  them  unto  holiness  (v.  4),  to  be  adopted  by  Christ  for 
his  own  through  his  great  love  and  to  his  praise  (v.  5,  6).  Re- 
demption and  forgiveness  suggest  the  riches  of  grace  (v.  7), 
coupled  with  gifts  of  wisdom  and  intelligence  (v,  8),  developed 
in  God's  revelation  of  his  great  and  eternal  mercy  (v.  9)  and  of 
his  vast  plan  for  the  union  of  all  under  Christ  the  head  (v.  10) ; 
through  whom  we  have  our  inheritance  according  to  his  purpose 
that  we  might  be  to  his  praise  (v.  11,  12).  How  their  salvation 
came  through  the  word  and  the  ensealing  of  the  Spirit — the 
pledge  of  their  future  inheritance  (v.  13,  14);  and  how  the 
tidings  of  their  sustained  faith  and  love  inspired  his  gratitude 
and  prayer  (v.  15,  16),  that  God  would  give  them  wisdom  and 
knowledge  to  apprehend  the  greatness  of  his  power  in  their  be- 
half (v,  17-19),  such  as  he  put  forth  in  raising  Christ  from  the 
dead  and  exalting  him  above  all  (v.  20,  21),  putting  all  things 
under  his  feet,  and  making  him  Supreme  Head  of  his  church 
(v.  22,  23). 

1.  Paul,  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  by  the  will  of  God, 
to  the  saints  which  are  at  Ephesus,  and  to  the  faithful  in 
Christ  Jesus : 

2.  Grace  be  to  you,  and  peace,  from  God  our  Father,  and 
fro7n  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Paul's  commission  as  an  apostle  came  specially  from  Jesus 
Christ  who  met  him  on  his  way  to  Damascus  and  there  gave  him 
this  definite  commission  (Acts  26:  15-18).  "By  the  will  of 
God"  might  contemplate  specially  his  good-will — his  great  mercy, 
or  merely  his  efficient  purpose — that  all-controlling  will  which 
orders  all  things  in  its  wisdom  and  brings  them  to  pass  through 
its  energy.  Neither  would  be  foreign  from  the  scope  of  the  con- 
text. To  the  former  Paul's  heart  was  keenly  alive  as  we  may  often 
notice  whenever  he  alludes  to  his  apostolic  call  as  from  God  (e.  g., 

Gal.  1:  15  and  1  Cor.  15:  10). "To   the  saints"    not  neces- 

(67) 


68  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  I. 

sarily  to  sinless  men  only  and  to  tliem  known  as  such  to  the  eye 
of  God  alone,  but  to  a  body  of  men  who  were  professedly  conse- 
crated to  God  for  a  holy  life  and  publicly  known  as  having  re- 
nounced their  former  life  of  sin.  "To  the  faithful  in  Christ 
Jesus  " — not  in  the  sense  of  special  fidelity  in  his  service,  but  of 
being  helicvers  in  Christ.  It  should  have  been  so  translated — 
"To  those  who  believe  in  Christ."  "At  Ephesus."  * 
Verse  2  gives  the  most  common  form  of  Paul's  salutation,  to 

which  is  added  in  his  later  epistles,  "mercy." "Grace"  is  that 

love  which  comes  in  manifestations  of  favor  from  God,  Avhile 
"peace"  represents  its  joyful  fruits  in  receptive  human  souls. 
Both  are  from  God  our  Father  and  from  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

3.  Blessed  he  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  hath  blessed  us  with  all  spiritual  blessings  in 
heavenly  ][)laces  in  Christ : 

4.  According  as  he  hath  chosen  us  in  him  before  the 
foundation  of  the  Avorld,  that  we  should  be  holy  and  without 
blame  before  him  in  love : 

5.  Having  predestinated  us  unto  the  adoption  of  children 
l)y  Jesus  Christ  to  himself,  according  to  the  good  pleasure 
of  his  will, 

6.  To  the  praise  of  the  glory  of  his  grace,  wherein  he 
hath  made  us  accepted  in  the  beloved : 

"Blessed" — not  in  the  sense  of  personal  happiness,  nor  in  a 
sense  which  either  asserts  or  implies  that  he  is  praised,  but  rather 
that  he  ought  to  be — that  he  is  infinitely  worthy  of  all  praise. f 
Here  Paul  calls  upon  all  men  to  ascribe  all  glory  to  the  God  and 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  for  his  great  mercy. 

The  phrase  "in  the  heavenly  places"  is  a  favorite  with  Paul, 
occurring  below  in  1 :  20  and  2:  6  and  3:  10,  and  in  a  some- 
what different  sense  in  6 :    12.      Though  the  word   in   italics — 

"■•■The  words  "at  Ephcsus  "  are  marked  as  doubtful  by  Tischcn- 
dorf,  are  peremptorily  excluded  by  Conybeare  and  Ilow.son;  hut 
di'cidedly  sustained  by  Ellicott  and  others.  The  best  manuscrii)(s 
are  nearly  unanimous  for  their  sujjport.  The  testimony  of  the 
tliree  oldest  (S.  V.  A.)  is  peculiar,  all  giving  the  general  title  of 
the  ei)istle  "To  the  Ephcsians,"  but  8.  and  V.  are  starred  to  show 
that  their  original  reading  (en  Epheso)  has  been  (supposably) 
omitted  by  a  later  hand. 

tTliis  peculiar  class  of  Greek  words —verbals  \n  jna — are  not 
])artici|des,  but  words  that  imply  worthiness  to  receive,  a  certain 
oii(/h(nesn  as  to  the  bein<;  or  doin<(.  This  word  (fr?o}?yroa)  is  to  be 
(listin^Miished  from  tiie  i)arti('iple  evloyovinmn^  beinj,'  in  the  New 
'iVstament  applied  to  God  only,  wiiile  the  particii»le  is  used  of 
men— f?.  <j.,  "Come,  ye  hicss.'d  o'i  niy  Fatiier"  (Malt.  25:  .",4);  also 
of  Mary  as  one  woitliy  of  s^jecial  favor:  "  Jjle.ssed  ail  thou  among 
women"  (Luke  1 :  28). 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  I.  69 

*' places'' — has  nothing  answering  to  it  in  the  Greek  text,  jet  the 
reference  is  doubtless  to  locality,  and  here  apparently  to  the 
locality  of  heaven  as  that  from  which  our  blessings  descend  upon 
us;  whence  Jesus  came  down  to  dwell  on  earth;  whence  also  the 
Spirit  comes  with  his  blessings ;  and  where  we  are  to  have  our 
final  home. 

All  these  spiritual  blessings  are  fitly  said  to  be  "?n  Chris  f  as 
their  only  source — the  eternal  fountain  whence  they  flow,  and  in 
which  they  have  their  center  and  home. 

In  V.  4  and  onward  we  have  words  whose  meaning  and  appli- 
cation have  been  much  controverted,  and  should  therefore  be  ex- 
amined with  both  care  and  candor. — r— Paul's  verb — "  hath 
chosen" — involves  (a.)  a  choice  of  certain  persons  out  of  a  sup- 
posed body;  (6.)  a  choice  in  past  time — for  this,  the  tense  of  the 
verb  implies — ^^  hath  chosen'';  and  the  passage  asserts — "before 
the  foundation  of  the  world":  (c.)  Reflexive  action,  i.  e.,  done 
by  the  agent  for  himself  as  the  form  of  the  verb  (Greek  middle 
voice)  clearly  implies. 

As  to  the  persons  chosen,  the  purpose  or  end  had  in  view  in  choos- 
ing them  is — that  "  they  should  become  holy  and  blameless  before 
him."  "Holy"  and  "blameless"  differ  slightly — the  former 
being  positive,  the  latter  negative;  i.  e.,  the  former  signifying  a 
real  consecration  to  the  will  of  God ;  and  the  latter,  a  character 
and  life  irreproachable.  That  his  chosen  might  become  such  was 
the  purpose  of  God  in  his  choice  of  them.  He  would  have  a 
holy  people. 

The  words  "in  love"  (close  of  v.  4)  which  the  authorized  ver- 
sion appends  to — "being  holy  and  blameless  before  him" — are 
better  attached  to  the  predestination  which  opens  v.  5:  Having 
predestinated  us  in  love — to  be  adopted  as  sons  to  himself  through 
Christ.  This  gives  a  sense  entirely  pertinent  and  is  equally  ad- 
missible in  construction. 

The  precise  sense  of  the  word  "  predestinated  "  is  fore-defined, 
previously  marked  off",  designated.  It  is  not  clear  how  any  other 
or  different  sense  can  be  found  in  the  word. 

This  is  done  "  according  to  the  good  pleasure  of  his  will" — 
which  must  mean  that  it  comes  from  his  real  benevolence — the 

kindness  and  love  of   his  very  heart. Apparently  the  word 

"  predestinate  "^  substantially  repeats  the  word — "hath  chosen" 
(v.  4)  for  the  sake  of  special  emphasis  upon  the  idea  of  time  when, 
i.  e.,  to  say  over  again  that  it  was  before,  anterior  in  time  to  their 
conversion. 

All  this  is  "to  the  praise  of  the  glory  of  his  grace  "  ; — which 
means  not  precisely  to  the  praise  of  his  glorious  grace,  but  to  the 
praise  of  that  particular  quality  of  his  grace  which  is  his  special 
glory — which  commends  it  to  us  as  worthy  of  our  supreme  regard, 
and  which  God  himself  accounts  to  be  his  highest  honor.  This 
can  be  nothing  less  or  other  than  his  pure  benevolence — his  own 
eternal  love. 

.  ^'■Kpoopiaaa. 


70  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.   I. 

In  this  grace  "  he  makes  us  accepted  in  the  beloved  One  '' — 
Jesus  Christ  his  Son,  "  in  whom  he  is  well  pleased."  Our  being 
in  him  provides  for  our  being  accepted  before  the  Father.  In 
the  case  of  sinners  nothing  else  can  secure  this  result.  And,  be 
it  remembered,  their  being  ''in  him"  implies  a  new  heart 
and  life. 

7.  In  whom  we  have  redemption  through  his  blood,  the 
forgiveness  of  sins,  according  to  the  riches  of  his  grace ; 

8.  Wherein  he  hath  abounded  toward  us  in  all  wisdom 
and  prudence ; 

9.  Having  made  known  unto  us  the  mystery  of  his  will, 
according  to  his  good  pleasure  which  he  hath  purposed  in 
himself: 

"  In  whom  we  have  " — have  now — not  merely  are  to  have,  but 
already  have — redemption  through  his  blood ;  ever  needing,  and 
ever  receiving  what  we  need. Moreover,  Paul  said  "the  re- 
demption"— the  same  which  was  long  before  promised  and  pro- 
vided for,  long  time  expected,  and  therefore  the  well  known 
redemption. 

This  redemption  is  from  sin,  death,  Satan,  and  comes  specially 
through  the  blood  of  Jesus.  Yet  more  particularly  defined,  it  is 
"  the  forgiveness  of  sins,"  and  this  according  to  and  measured  by 
the  riches  of  his  grace.  Forgiveness  of  sin  must  always  presup- 
pose the  richest  of  grace — for  how  else  could  it  ever  come  to  be- 
ings so  guilty  ? 

By  reason  of  this  rich  grace  God  has  not  only  forgiven  our 
sins,  but  has  continued  still  to  make  that  grace  abound  unto  us 
in  all  needed  forms  and  measures  of  wisdom  and  understanding ; 
— "  wisdom  "  being  that  which  is  good  for  counsel  in  questions 
of  duty;  and  "  understanding"  having  reference  naturally  to  the 
exercise  of  our  intelligence  upon  divine  truth. 

The  riches  of  God's  grace  acting  upon  our  intelligence  is  illus- 
trated in  his  "making  known  the  mystery  of  his  will" — that 
great  gospel  scheme  which  for  ages  was  in  many  points  an  unrcr 
vealed  mystery;  but  through  God's  good  pleasure  purposed  in 
himself,  begotten  of  his  own  love  and  of  nothing  extraneous  to 
this  love,  has  in  these  latter  times  been  made  known. 

10.  That  in  the  dispensation  of  the  fullness  of  times  ho 
might  gather  together  in  one  all  things  in  Christ,  both  which 
are  in  heaven,  and  which  arc  on  earth;  even  in  him: 

The  purpose  of  God  as  here  shown  is  that  ultimately  all  things 
shall  conspire  to  the  universal  supremacy  of  Christ.  In  the  full- 
ness of  times,  the  jilan  will  be  consummated  and  the  supreme 
headship  of  Christ  will  be  recognized  as  its  ultimate  result.  All 
things  in  heaven  and  in  earth — all  beings  above  and  Ixilow — shall 
become  one  in  snl)niission  to  his  sway  and  one  in  glory  to  his 
name.     IJut  obviously  wo  should  do  violence  to  the  words  of  our 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  I.  71 

passage,  and  no  less,  to  the  whole  course  of  thought  in  this  con- 
text, if  we  were  to  force  this  language  to  affirm  that  lost  spirits 
in  hell  are  included.  Jesus  himself  has  shut  the  door  against 
them  so  emphatically,  so  decisively,  so  solemnly,  that  we  can  not 
suppose  Paul  could  intend  to  say  that  Christ  recalls  those  words, 
revokes  those  decisions,  and  brings  them  at  last  into  his  heavenly 
kingdom. 

11.  In  whom  also  we  have  obtained  an  inheritance,  being 
predestinated  according  to  the  purpose  of  him  who  worketh 
all  things  after  the  counsel  of  his  own  will : 

12.  That  we  should  be  to  the  praise  of  his  glory,  who  first 
trusted  in  Christ. 

"In  whom  we  become  heirs  also;  i.  e.,  we  come  to  inherit  all 
blessings  as  our  divinely  given  portion.  This  figure  of  becoming 
heirs  of  God  is  a  favorite  with  Paul,  Under  it  we  inherit  all 
blessings  from  God  as  his  adopted  sons. 

Once  more  Paul  traces  this  gift  back  to  God's  eternal  choice 
which  follows  the  counsel  of  his  own  will,  using  the  same  word 
for  ''fore-determined''  as  in  the  beginning  of  v.  5.  This  purpose, 
moreover,  is  here  thought  of  as  that  of  a  Being  whose  ceaseless 
and  infinite  energies  accomplish  all  things,  according  to  his  own 
will. And  this  divine  will  designs  that  his  people  should  pro- 
mote and  exalt  his  own  glory  and  praise — the  "we"  of  this  pas- 
sage being  apparently  the  Jews  who  were  the  first  converts  to 
Christ,  over  against  the  "2/e  also''  of  v.  13,  who  were  Gentiles. 
But  whether  we  or  ye,  Jews  or  Gentiles,  the  one  purpose  of  God 
contemplated  a  people  who  should  be  to  the  praise  of  his  eternal 
love,  and  of  his  infinitely  wise  and  glorious  scheme  of  salvation. 

Pausing  here  to  review  the  contents  of  this  remarkable  passage 
(v.  3-12),  it  may  not  be  amiss  for  me  to  say  that  I  have  been 
by  no  means  unmindful  that  these  verses  have  long  been  theo- 
logical battle-ground  for  contending  systems  and  schools  of  the- 
ology; yet  neither  could  I  be  unmindful  that  my  first  duty  both 
to  the  public  and  to  God  is  that  of  an  expositor  of  Paul's  words. 

Having  performed  this  duty,  my  appropriate  work  is  done.- 

However  (as  suggested  in  my  introduction)  it  is  legitimate  to 
study  the  stand-point  of  view  from  which  Paul  saw  these  truths 
and  wrote  this  passage.  He  was  thinking  of  his  three  years'  labor 
in  Ephesus  ;  of  the  utter  moral  wreck  and  ruin  in  which  he  found 
the  idolaters  of  that  city;  of  the  amazing  change  wrought  in  the 
souls  of  a  portion  of  them,  and  of  the  ultimate  grounds  for  that 
interposing  grace  of  God  which  had  plucked  them  as  brands  from 

the  general  burning. Now  at  this  point  in  these  thoughts,  it 

is  simply  indisputable  that  Paul  traces  the  salvation  of  the  saved 
ones  out  of  that  population  to  the  foregoing  plans  of  God  and  to 
the  fore-working  of  his  saving  power.  All  was  due  to  the  eter- 
nal love  in  which  all  the  gifts  of  heavenly  grace  and  all  the  work- 
ing instrumentalities  resulting  in  their  conversion  had  their 
origin. So  much  Paul  obviously  held  and  clearly  affirmed. 


72  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.    I. 

Moreover  it  is  obvious  that  in  this  passage  Paul  had  no  thought 
of  developing  a  fully  rounded  theological  system.  On  the  nature 
of  free  moral  agency,  he  advances  (in  a  formal  way)  no  opinion 
— discusses  no  theory.  As  to  any  philosophy  which  would  ad- 
just this  free  human  agency  to  the  higher  divine  agency  by 
which  God  works  all  things  after  the  counsel  of  his  own  will,  he 
is  entirely  silent.  Whether  he  held  any  philosophical  views  as 
to  this  point,  he  neither  affirmed  nor  denied.  He  certainly  did 
not  imply  that  the  fore-chosen  ones  would  or  could  have  been 
saved  without  their  own  free  repentance  and  their  own  personal 
faith.  More  than  this;  it  is  clear  from  his  own  account  of  his 
gospel  labors  in  that  city,  that  when  he  "  went  from  house  to 
liouse,  warning  every  man  night  and  day  with  tears,"  he  was  in 
no  way  embarrassed,  hampered,  restricted,  by  the  supposition 
that  God  had  provided  nothing  for  the  salvation  of  the  masses ; 
that  only  a  few — a  select  and  relatively  small  number — had  re- 
demption provided  and  oflfered  to  their  acceptance.  It  is  very 
safe  to  assume  that  he  pressed  the  gospel  of  this  salvation  upon 
every  man  he  met,  and  labored  to  make  every  such  man  believe 
and  feel  that  God  would  never  shut  him  off  if  he  would  not  shut 
off  himself  This  was  shown  very  forcibly  at  the  crisis  point 
of  Paul's  sermon  at  Antioch  in  Pisidia  (Acts  13:  45,  46); — "It 
was  necessary  that  the  word  of  God  should  first  be  spoken  to 
you"  (Jews);  but  seeing  ye  put  it  from  yon  undi  judge  yourselves 
univorihy  of  everlasting  life,  lo,  we  turn  to  the  Gentiles."  God 
would  fain  have  blessed  you  with  his  gospel ;  but  since  ye  elect 
yourselves  unto  reprobation  by  "judging  yourselves  unworthy  of 
life,"  since  ye  thus  foredoom  your  souls  to  death  eternal,  we 
have  no  alternative,  neither  has  God,  but   to  leave  you  to  your 

choice. So    when  Paul,    preaching    to   those    Jews   at  Rome 

(Acts  28 :  23-29),  "  expounded  and  testified  the  kingdom  of  God, 
persuading  them  concerning  Jesus  from  morning  till  evening, 
and  some  believed  the  things  spoken  and  some  believed  not,  he 
closed  with  one  word  from  Isaiah ; — "  For  the  heart  of  this  peo- 
ple is  waxed  gross,  and  their  ears  are  dull  of  hearing,  and  their 
eyes  have  they  closed;  lest  they  should  see  with  their  eyes,  and 
understand  with  their  heart,  and  should  be  converted,  and  I 
should  heal  them.  Be  it  known  unto  you,  therefore,  that  the 
salvation  of  God  is  sent  unto  the  Gentiles,  and  that  they  will 
hear  it."  If  the  Jews  saw  fit  to  close  their  eyes  lest  they  should 
see  the  gospel's  light  and  lest  God  should  convert  them,  upon 

themselves  and  not  upon  God  would  rest  the  responsibility. 

Paul's  philosophy  of  the  plan  of  salvation  had  tiiercfore  a  large 
place  for  the  free  agency  of  man.  It  had  also  un((uestional)ly  a 
place  for  the  fore-ordering  purpose  of  God,  yet  manifestly  it 
never  ])rought  these  two  distinct  agencies  into  collision  Avith 
ea(;h  other,  nor  did  it  at  all  rule  out  the  human  })y  unduly  hon- 
oring the  divine.  In  fact  the  divine  was  honored  in  and  through 
t\u)  human,  it  being  an  eternal  |irincipl(!  or  law  in  the  wise  fore- 
ordering  of  God's   universal  moral   government,  never  to  over- 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.    I.  73 

rule  the  free  moral  agency  of  his  creatures.  Such  as  would  not 
have  an  offered  salvation  were  left  mournfully  with  grief  and 
tears,  yet  of  moral  necessity — to  their  own  fatal  choice — the  com- 
passionate Father  still  testifying  to  his  own  pity  and  grief — 
"  How  shall  I  give  thee  up,  Ephraim  ?"   (Hos.  11 :  8). 

Thus  we  may  resort  to  Paul's  actual  life  and  labors  to  find  his 
philosophy  of  free  agency  and  his  way  of  practically  harmoniz- 
ing such  agency  with  his  views  of  God's  fore-ordering  purpose 
and  choice. 

13.  In  whom  ye  also  trusted,  after  that  ye  heard  the  word 
of  truth,  the  gospel  of  your  salvation:  in  whom  also,  after 
that  ye  believed,  ye  were  sealed  with  that  Holy  Spirit  of 
promise, 

14.  Which  is  the  earnest  of  our  inheritance  until  the  re- 
demption of  the  purchased  possession,  unto  the  praise  of  his 
glory. 

In  V.  13  the  original  commences — "In  whom  ye  also" — and 
there  leaves  his  sentence  incomplete  for  the  reader  to  fill  out. 
The  authorized  version  supplies  ''trusted'' — which  may  possibly 
be  Paul's  meaning.  But  it  seems  to  me  better  to  go  back  more 
fully  into  the  great  drift  of  Paul's  thought,  viz.,  to  their  "being 
also  to  the  praise  of  his  glory;  "  thus — (v.  12):  "  To  the  end  that 
we,  the  first  Jewish  converts — should  be  to  the  praise  of  his  glory; 
(v.  13),  in  whom  also  are  ye  (Gentile  converts)  to  the  praise 
of  his  glory,  having  heard  the  word  of  truth,  the  gospel  of  your 
salvation;  in  which  gospel  ye  also,  having  believed,  were  sealed," 
etc. 

This  sealing  was  by  the  promised  Holy  Spirit— the  Spirit 
given  according  to  Christ's  promise  oft  repeated  (.John  14:  26  and 
15 :  26  and  16  :  7-15).  The  ensealing  to  which  Paul  often  refers 
is  no  other  than  the  assurance  of  faith  and  hope  begotten  by  the 
Spirit's  own  witness  to  the  heart  that  we  are  sons  of  God.  (See 
Kom.  8:  15,  16.)  "Ye  have  received  the  spirit  of  adoption, 
whereby  we  cry  Father,  Father."  "The  Spirit  itself  beareth 
witness  with  our  spirit  that  we  are  the  children  of  God."  This 
expresses  the  fact  without  the  figure  of  sealing.  This  figure, 
however,  appears  in  Paul  under  the  word  translated  as  here 
"  earnest"  *  or  pledge  :  "  Who  hath  also  sealed  us  and  given  the 
earnest  of  the  Spirit  in  our  hearts"  (2  Cor.  1  :  22  and  5:  5). 
This  word  implies  a  part  payment  of  a  promised  sum,  advanced 
to  guaranty  the  full  payment  in  due  time.  Such  part  payments 
recognize  the  obligation  and  signify  the  purpose  to  make  up  the 
balance  promised.  So  all  the  present  gifts  of  the  Spirit  testify 
to  us  that  God  recognizes  us  as  his  adopted  sons,  and  will  make 

good  to  us  in  due  season  our  whole  inheritance. In  the  clause 

"  Until  the  redemption  of  the  purchased  possession,"  the  orig- 
inal words  favor — not  to  say,  demand — the  sense  unto  rather  than 
"until" — a  pledge  looking  toivard — a  pledge  that  he  will  redeem 


74  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.    I. 

his  purchased  people.  lie  has  iDOught  them  by  redemption  from 
sin,  Satan  and  all  evil ;  and  now,  by  the  gifts  of  his  Spirit 
pledges  to  them  the  ultimate  redemption  of  this  redemptive  pur- 
chase. They  are  his  acquired  inheritance,  bought  with  redeem- 
ing blood.  Peter  (1  Eps.  2:  9)  has  the  same  word  as  Paul  here 
to  indicate  that  saints  are  God's  people  of  acquisition — his  pur- 
chased ones. Thus,   as  Paul's  words  testify,   the   gift  of  the 

Spirit  is  a  pledge  looking  toward  and  unto  two  results;  (1.) 
Guarantying  our  complete  redemption;  (2.)  Evincing  and  dis- 
playing God's  glory — the  latter  too  precious  ever  to  be  left  out 
of  view. 

15.  Wherefore  I  also,  after  I  heard  of  your  faith  in  the 
Lord  Je«us,  and  love  unto  all  the  saints, 

16.  Cease  not  to  give  thanks  for  you,  making  mention  of 
you  in  my  prayers ; 

17.  That  the  God  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Father 
of  glory,  may  give  unto  you  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  reve- 
lation in  the  knoAvledge  of  him : 

18.  The  eyes  of  your  understanding  being  enlightened; 
that  ye  may  know  what  is  the  hope  of  his  calling,  and  what 
the  riches  of  the  glory  of  his  inheritance  in  the  saints, 

In  V.  15,  "I  also"  looks  back  to  v.  13,  and  puts  this  "I"  in 
special  relation  to  "  ye  also,"  standing  there.  He  would  say — 
"As  ye  also  were  to  be  to  the  praise  of  God's  glory,  so  I  too,  hav- 
ing heard  of  your  faith,  cease  not  to  give  thanks  for  you.  1  also 
will  celebrate  the  glory  of  his  grace.' 

"Having  heard  of  your  faith  and  love" — for  at  this  writing 
Paul  had  been  absent  some  four  or  five  years,  and  was  therefore 
deeply  gratified  to  hear  of  their  well-sustained  faith  and  love.     It 

became  to  him  a  precious  theme  for  both  praise  and  prayer. 

Noticeably  his  Greek  says — not  your  faith,  which  might  imply  that 
faith  was  general,  possibly  universal  among  them — ^but  "  the  faith 
that  is  among  you  ' — a  phrase  which  quietly  suggests  that  while 

some  faith  was  there,  it  might  be  in  a  few  individuals  only. 

What  he  pr:iys  for  in  their  behalf,  he  enlarges  upon  for  their  com- 
fort and  quickening,  viz.,  that  the  God  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
— his  own  Father  as  also  oiir  Father  (so  John  20:  17  andlMatt. 
27:  40),  and  especially  the  Father  of  gfory,  i.  e.,  glory  in  the 
sense — this  glorious  scheme  of  love  which  so  exalts  his  name — 
who  is  therefore  a  sublimely  glorious  Father  (See  Acts  7  :  2  and 
1  C(n-.  2  :  )-!),  may  give  you  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  of  revelation 
as  to  tlio  knowledge  of  himself,  these  being  among  the  choice  gifts 
of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  eyes  of  your  heai^i  (rather  than  "understanding" — such 
being  the  improved  text)*l)eing  enlightened — opened  to  spiritual 
approhciiisions — to  the  end  that  y*^  may  know  what  that  hu])e  is 
to  wliich  he  has  called  you;  and  liow  rich  is  the  glory  of  his  in- 
heritance in  the  saints — a  truly  wonderful  accumulation  of  terms, 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.    I.  75 

setting  forth  this  inheritance  in  the  saints  in  the  point  of  its 
glory,  and  this  glory  in  the  aspect  of  its  richness.  Oh,  might  they 
but  know  this !  Would  it  not  bring  a  marvelous  inspiration 
toward  gratitude,  trust,  love,  and  the  spirit  of  a  consecrated  obe- 
dience ! 

19.  And  what  is  the  exceeding  greatness  of  his  power  to 
US-ward  who  believe,  according  to  the  working  of  his  mighty 
power, 

20.  Which  he  wrought  in  Christ,  when  he  raised  him  from 
the  dead,  and  set  him  at  his  own  right  hand  in  the  heavenly 
places, 

21.  Far  above  all  principality,  and  power,  and  might,  and 
dominion,  and  every  name  that  is  named,  not  only  in  this 
world,  but  also  in  that  which  is  to  come : 

Paul's  words  here  seem  chosen  for  their  intense  expressiveness 
and  their  wealth  of  meaning,  yet  their  very  accumulation  vsuggests 
that  they  were  all  too  poor  to  measure  the  vastness  of  his  thought; 
and,  moreover,  that  in  his  own  sense  of  it,   his   loftiest  thoughts 

were  still  indefinitely  below  the  reality. Here  is  "  exceeding 

greatness  "  of  power  in  our  behalf— greatness  surpassing  thought, 
having  no  adequate  illustration,  yet  its  best  is  in  that  energy  of 
the  might  of  his  power  which  he  put  forth  in  raising  Jesus  from 
the  dead  and  then  exalting  him  to  sit  at  his  right  hand  on  his  OAvn 
heavenly  throne,  high  above  all  other  most  exalted  beings  of  his 
universe.  This  accumulation  of  various  orders  of  intelligent  be- 
ings is  purposel}^  made  exhaustive  to  signify  that  however  many 
there  may  be,  or  however  high  in  dignity  and  power,  Jesus  was 
exalted  high  above  them  all.  See  in  1  ret.  3 :  22  a  similar  ac- 
cumulation of  these  titles  to  embrace  all  the  glorious  hierarchies 
of  heaven. 

This  analogy  between  the  power  which  redeems  God's  people 
and  the  power  which  raised  Jesus  from  the  grave  and  exalted  him 
to  the  highest  throne  of  heaven,  is  very  common  in  the  writings 
of  Paul — clearly  illustrative  to  his  mind,  we  must  suppose,  and 
not  less  dear  to  his  heart.  We  shall  often  meet  it  in  various  con- 
nections.    (See  below,  2:  6,  7.) 

22.  And  hath  put  all  thhigs  under  his  feet,  and  gave  him 
to  be  the  head  over  all  things  to  the  church, 

23.  Which  is  his  body,  the  fullness  of  him  that  filleth  all 
in  all. 

The  consummation  was  reached  when  the  Father  had  put  all 
things  under  the  feet  of  the  risen,  glorified  Redeemer,  and  had 
made  him  Supreme  Head  over  all  things  to  his  church.  The 
words  and  the  thought  also  here  seem  to  follow  Psalm  8  ; — "  Thou 
hast  made  him  a  little  lower  than  the  angels ;  thou  hast  crowned 
him  with  glory  and  honor;  thou  hast  put  all  things  under  his 
feet;"  in  view  of  which,  the  Psalmist  cries  out: — 0  Lord,  our 


76  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.    II. 

Lord,  how  excellent  is  thy  name  in  all  the  earth !  "  The  writer 
to  the  Hebrews  also  (2:  6-9)  finds  the  Messiah  in  these  words.* 
Paul's  reference  to  the  Psalm  is  brief,  his  thought  being  specially 
upon  Christ's  relation  to  the  church  as  its  Head,  the  church  it- 
self being  (in  figure)  his  body. 

In  what  sense  is  this  body,  the  church,  called  "  the  fullness  ?"  Is 
it  in  the  numerical  sense — the  full  number,  the  sum  total,  purposely 
including  all  its  individual  parts?  This  seems  to  be  out  of  har- 
mony with  the  current  of  thought  here — a  thing  inept  and  with- 
out occasion.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  basis  of  Paul's  conception 
is  the  receptivity  of  every  rational  soul  to  God — its  capability  of 
being  filled  with  the  Spirit  and  with  its  divine  blessings.  From 
this  elementary  conception  he  readily  advances  to  think  of  the 
entire  church  as  in  like  manner  having  a  receptivity  for  Christ, 
and  as  being  tilled  with  all  rich  spiritual  blessings — regenerat- 
ing, sanctifying,  unto  all  the  fruits  of  holiness.  The  church,  his 
body,  thus  filled  with  himself,  might  fitly  be  called  his  "pleroma" 
— his  "  fullness."  Then  to  complete  the  conception,  it  is  the  full- 
ness of  Him  (Christ)  who  fills  all  things  with  all,  i.  e.,  with  all 
there  is  in  them ;  whose  presence  fills  the  universe  and  whose 
power  diffuses  blessings  every-where  as  his  sun  diffuses  light. 
Thus  He  who  tills  the  universe  with  all  the  good  which  there  is 
in  it  is  the  same  who  fills  the  church,  his  body,  with  all  her  spir- 
itual life,  purity,  glory  ! 


CHAPTER    II. 

Dead  in  sin  they  had  lived  under  the  power  of  Satan  and  of  all 
fleshly  lusts  (v.  1-3) ;  but  God  in  great  mercy  had  raised  them  to 
spiritual  life,  even  as  he  raised  Christ  from  death  to  life  (v.  4,  5), 
and  brought  them  to  sit  together  amid  heavenly  ble.^^sings  in 
Jesus,  to  show  forth  the  riches  of  his  grace  (v.  6,  7);  for  their 
salvation  is  all  of  grace  through  faith  and  not  at  all  of  meritorious 
■works  (v.  8,  9),  they  having  been  new-born  to  God  unto  good 
works  (v.  10).  Let  them  therefore  remember  their  former  Gen- 
tile, Godless  life  (v.  11,  1*2),  and,  in  contrast,  their  present  life  in 
Christ,  their  peace,  brought  nigh  to  God  and  made  one  in  his 
kingdom,  whether  Jew  or  Gentile  (v.  13-18),  built  upon  Christ 
into  the  great  spiritual  temple  in  which  God  dwells  by  his  Spirit 
(v.  19-22). 

1.  And  you  JiatJi  he  quickened,  who  were  dead  in  trespasses 
and  sins ; 

*  My  views  as  to  the  true  interpretation  of  tiiis  Psalm  8,  maybe 
seen  in  my  "  (Jommentary  on  Psalms." 


ErHESIANS. — CHAP.    II.  77 

2.  Wherein  in  time  past  ye  walked  according  to  the 
course  of  this  world,  according  to  the  prince  of  the  power 
of  the  air,  the  spirit  that  noAV  worketh  in  the  children  of  dis- 
obedience : 

3.  Among  whom  also  we  all  had  our  conversation  in  times 
past  in  the  lusts  of  our  flesh,  fulfilling  the  desires  of  tlie 
flesh  and  of  the  mind ;  and  were  by  nature  the  children  of 
wrath,  even  as  others. 

The  apostle  proceeds  to  apply  practically  to  his  Ephesian  con- 
verts the  great  truth  suggested  above  (v.  19,  20),  conveyed  under 
the  same  analogy,  viz.,  that  God  raises  dead  souls  to  spiritual  life, 
even  as  he  raised  Jesus  from  the  dead. 

The  order  and  succession  of  Paul's  thoughts  her^  are  very  pe- 
culiar. First  of  all,  in  the  foreground:  "  You  also"  (v.  1),  and 
then  a  long  description  of  their  deplorable  case  through  three 
verses,  before  he  returns  to  fill  out  the  thought  by  saying  that  in 
God's  great  mercy  and  love,  he  had  lifted  them  out  of  death  into 
life,  even  as  he  had  raised  Jesus  from  bodily  death  into  glorious 
life. 

"Quickened"  is  brought  forward  in  our  authorized  version; 
but  Paul  did  not  introduce  this  word  till  he  reached  v.  5.  There 
can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  in  thought  it  belongs  here. 

The  meaning  of  this  nearly  obsolete  word  is  simply  raised  to 
life.  They  were  "dead  in  trespasses  and  sins" — dead,  not  in  the 
sense  of  having  no  mind,  but  of  having  a  bad  mind — not  of  being 
v^athout  moral  sense,  but  of  having  perverted  their  moral  sense 
and  crushed  it  down — not  of  being  powerless  as  to  any  moral 
good,  but  only  of  bBing  averse.  They  were  dead  in  the  special 
point  of  "  trespasses  and  sins  ;"  lost  to  self-rescue,  self-resuscita- 
tion; borne  along  according  to  the  drift  and  course  of  this  world; 
according  to  the  will  and  the  rule  of  "the  Prince  of  the  power 
of  the  air" — the  spirit  now  working  with  terrible  energy  in  all 
hearts  rebellious  toward  God. 

The  phrase,  "The  Prince  of  the  power  of  the  air,"  has  been 
explained  variously  to  mean  :  {a.)  "  Prince  of  the  power"  in  the 
sense  of  the  powerful  prince  ;  (&.)  The  prince  over  the  powers — 
i.  e.,  the  powerful  angels  under  his  bidding  there;  or,  (c.)  The 
prince  over  the  realm,  the  kingdom,  located  in  the  atmosphere — 
the  latter  being  best  supported.  The  "air"  is  obviously  here  the 
locality — the  region  and  realm  of  their  range  and  haunt,  if  not 
also  of  their  proper  abode — a  locality  sub-celestial  and  supra- 
mundane — below  the  heavens  yet  above  and  around  the  earth. 
It  is  not  said  or  even  intimated  that  this  is  to  be  their  locality 
for  ever.  Supposably  it  may  be  such  only  during  the  probation 
of  man  on  this  earth ;  or  (we  may  suggest)  till  the  millennium. 

"Children  of  disobedience'' — this  "disobedience"  implying 
more  or  less  knowledge  of  God  and  of  duty,  and  a  persistent,  invet- 
erate resistance  to  God's  claims.  They  will  not  be  persuaded.  Of 
course  they  have  light  and  conviction  of  truth  to  sin  against  and 


78  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.    II. 

are  therefore  utterly  without  excuse,  beiniz;  guilty  of  Intelligent, 
deliberate  rebellion. — Among  such  sinners  we  all,  both  Jews  and 
Gentiles,  were  formerly  living,  yielding  to  the  sway  of  all  fleshly 
lusts,  and  also  of  those  passions  which  have  their  seat  in  the 
mind.     So  "we  were  by  nature"  all  alike  "  children  of  wrath." 

The  words,  "by  nature  children  of  wrath,"  have  been  held  by 
some  to  mean,  or  at  least  to  imply,  that  nature  itself  is  the  subject 
of  God's  wrath,  and  consequently  must  be  itself  sin.  Yet  this  is 
not  what  Paul  affirms.  All  he  says  is  that  men  are  children  of 
wrath  by  nature — i.  e.,  in  consequence  of  what  is  involved  in 
their  birth  from  sinning  parents.* 

To  justify  this  construction  it  would  seem  to  be  enough  to  say 
that  this  is  all  that  the  words  mean,  and  precisely  what,  by  fair 
construction,  they  should  be  assumed  to  mean.— But  beyond  this 
it  is  legitimate  to  bring  into  account  the  moral  possibilities  and 
impossibilities  of  the  case.  If  nature  itself  is  sin,  who  is  morally 
responsible  for  it?  Who  is  the  Author  of  nature?  And  yet 
again:  Since  the  divine  word  itself  defines  sin  to  be  "transgres- 
sion of  the  law,"  what  "law"  does  this  nature  transgress?  And 
where  does  the  voluntary  agency  come  in  which  makes  transgres- 
sion blameworthy  ?  Whose  conscience  can  ever  be  convicted  of 
sin  for  having  the  nature  with  which  and  in  which  he  was  born? 
Yet  further  :  ITow  can  it  be  supposed  that  God's  wrath  burns 
against  that  which  has  no  moral  consciousness,  which  involves 
no  knowledge  of  duty,  in  which   is  no  conscious  disobedience  ? 

On  the  other  hand,  interpreting  the  words  to  mean  only  that 

men  are  sinners  in  consequence  of  their  birth  from  sinning  par- 
ents, the  passage  looks  toward  the  universality  of  sin  in  our 
world,  but  does  not  locate  its  guilt  in  human*  nature  itself.  The 
antecedents  of  sin  are  not  necessarily  themselves  sin.  Indeed, 
in  the  nature  of  the  case  there  must  be  some  not-sinning  and  not- 
sinful  occasions;  i.  e.,  antecedents  of  sin  before  the  [first  sin. 
For  to  deny  this  involves  the  absurdity  of  sin  before  the  first  sin. 

So  much  it  seemed  necessary  to  say  here  in  refutation  of  that 
construction  of  this  passage,  or  of  that  inference  from  it,  which 
carries  the  moral  responsibility  for  this  nature  back  to  its  diviue 
Author. 

Moreover  the  word  "  wrath,"  when  spoken  of  God,  must  never 
be  construed  to  mean  or  imply  an  effervescence  or  outpouring  of 
malign  passion,  as  it  often  does  when  said  of  bad  men.  This  can 
not  be  implied  when  wrath  is  ascribed  to  God  for  the  good  rea- 
son that  his  nature  forbids  it.  It  does  however  involve  deep  and 
earnest  displeasure  against  sin,  a  holy  abhorrence  of  sin  for  what 
it  is ;  and  a  deep  conviction  of  his  own  obligation  to  repress  and 

*  Beyond  question  "nature"  (Greek  phv.sis)  means  primarily, 
birth;  secondarily,  the  results  or  oonsc<iucnccs  of  birth;  and  con- 
se<|nently,  bi/  mtliire  means,  primarily,  hi/  birth,  the  word  "by"  de- 
noting in  conseqiu'nce  directly  or  remotely,  of  such  birth.  ITow  in 
consequence,  by  what  laws  of  connection,  the  case  itself  must  an- 
swer. 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  II.  79 

punish  it  in  the  persons  of  its  deliberate,  incorrigible  perpetra- 
tors. It  is  the  feeling  of  a  good  moral  governor,  bound  by  the 
laws  of  his  own  nature,  and  also  (which  comes  to  the  same  result) 
bound  by  the  principles  of  his  ovm  government  to  punish  trans- 
gressions that  can  be  repressed  in  no  other  way. Yet  again  ; 

it  is  entirely  legitimate  to  interpret  the  word  "wrath"  when  said 
of  God,  in  harmony  with  his  rich  mercy  and  with  his  much  (or 
great)  love ;  for,  be  it  carefully  noted  that  Paul  in  the  same  breath 
speaks  of  God's  wrath  and  then  of  his  mercy ;  for  having  said 
"  wrath  "  he  then  goes  on  to  say; — "  But  (in  the  utmost  harmony 
with  this  wrath)  God,  being  rich  in  mercy,  on  account  of  his 
great  love  in  which  he  hath  loved  us — even  vs  then  being  dead 
in  sins,  hath  made  us  alive  together  with  Christ,  and  as  he  raised 
him  from  death  to  life.  Paul  is  particular  to  say  most  explicitly 
that  God's  wrath  against  those  who  were  born  to  wrath  (  "  children 
of  wrath "  )  is  by  no  means  in  conflict  with  his  rich  mercy  and 
his  great  love  toward  the  very  same  lost  souls.  It  was  ichile  we 
were  yet  sinners  that  Christ  died  for  us.  All  the  wrath  felt 
against  us  because  of  our  sin  did  not  shut  off  his  great  love  for 
us.  Therefore,  it  is  legitimate  to  say  that  God's  wrath  against 
sin  and  sinners  must  be  construed  in  harmoiiy  and  never  in  con- 
flict with  the  riches  of  his  mercy  and  the  greatness  of  his  love. 

4.  But  God,  who  is  rich  in  mercy,  for  his  great  love  where- 
with he  loved  us, 

5.  Even  when  we  w^ere  dead  in  sins,  hath  quickened  us 
together  with  Christ,  (by  grace  ye  are  saved ;) 

6.  And  hath  raised  us  up  together,  and  made  us  sit  to- 
gether in  heavenly  jylaces  in  Christ  Jesus : 

7.  That  in  the  ages  to  come  he  might  shew  the  exceeding 
riches  of  his  grace,  in  his  kindness  toward  us,  through 
Christ  Jesus. 

The  connection  and  course  of  thought  here  have  been  antici- 
pated above.  The  antithesis  between  God's  wrath  against  sin- 
ners— such  by  nature — and  his  rich  mercy  and  great  love, — is 
indeed  marvelous!  It  is  Paul's  ruling  thought  in  this  passage. 
Mark  how  he  turns  it  over  and  over :  "  By  grace  are  ye  saved"  ; 
"By  grace  are  ye  saved  through  fiiith  ;  and  this  being  saved  is 
not  of  yourselves;  it  is  the  free  gift  of  God"  (v.  8).  He  would 
make  the  fact  stand  out  most  distinctly  that  it  was  precisely  ivhen 
we  were  dead  in  sin  that  God  lifted  us  into  life,  even  as  He  lifted 
Christ  from  the  grave  into  his  resurrection  life,  and  as  his  chosen 
word  signifies — aloijg  icith  this  raising  of  Christ,  as  if  it  were 
wrovglit  by  the  same  Almighty  fiat  of  spiritual  power. 

This  remarkable  analogy — its  antithetic  points  so  harmoniously 
adjusted — will  not  be  apprehended  in  its  full  strength  unless  we 
remember  that  the  raising  of  Christ  from  the  dead  is  often  ascribed 
to  the  same  spirit  of  power  as  that  which  raises  souls  dead  in  sin 
to  their  new  Hfe  in  God.     See  Christ's  own  testimony  (John  5: 


80  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.    II. 

21,24):  "As  the  Fatlier  raiseth  up  the  dead  and  quickeneth 
them,  even  so  the  Son  quickeneth  whom  he  will."    "lie  that  hath 

my  word  and  believeth  is  passed  from  death  unto  life." Paul 

presents  this  same  analogy  often  ]  e.  g.  "  That  like  as  Christ  was 
raised  up  from  the  dead  by  the  glory  of  the  Father,  even  so,  we 
also  should  walk  in  newness  of  life;  for  if  we  have  been  planted 
together  in  the  likeness  of  his  death  (we  dying  as  he  died),  we 
shall  be  also  in  the  likeness  of  his  resurrection''  (Rom.  6:  4,  5). 
"And  ye,  being  dead  in  your  sins,  hath  he  quickened  together 
with  Him"  (Christ).    (Col.  2:13). 

The  similar  work  wrought  by  the  Father,  first  upon  his  Son 
Jesus,  and  then  upon  his  people  who  are  in  Jesus,  is  manifested 
{a.)  In  giving  life  to  both — "  quickening"  : — {h.)  Inraising  them 
up  together,  i.  e.,  similarly : — (c.)   In  making  them  sit  together  in 

the  heavenly  world. This  similar  working  of  divine  power,  or, 

better,  the  similarity  in  each  of  these  three  points — is  put  in 
our  English  version  by  the  word  "  together  ": — "  quickened  to- 
gether "';  "raised  up  together";  "seated  together"; — but  in 
Paul's  Greek,  by  coupling  the  same  Greek  preposition  {aw)  with 
each  verb,  to  denote  a  similar  and  analogous  action  or  energy 
in  each  of  these  verbs.  This  makes  his  statement  exceedingly 
definite  and  beautifully  expressive. 

As  to  the  third  stage  of  the  process — the  seating  of  Christ  and 
of  his  people  together  in  the  heavenly  place  (Paul  said  the  heav- 
enly world)  the  question  may  arise  whether  that  looks  to  the  real 
heaven,  or  whether  in  regard  to  his  people  it  may  terminate  with 
bringing  them  into  heavenly  experience  of  Christ's  presence  here 
on  earth.  To  which  I  judge  the  answer  must  be — To  the  real  and 
final  heaven;  for  as  the  raising  of  Christ  was  but  half  done  when 
his  risen  body  appeared  on  earth  during  forty  days,  and  was  com- 
pleted only  when,  having  ascended  on  high,  he  became  seated  at 
the  right  hand  of  the  Father ;  so  the  raising  of  his  people  in  a 
manner  so  fully  analogous  is  still  incomplete  till  they  too  shall 

be  raised  to  sit  together  with  Christ  in  the  very  heaven. All 

this  is  ''ill  Christ  Jesus  " — a  truth  which  Paul  is  never  weary  of 
reaffirming;  which  he  would  have  his  readers  never  forget. 

The  final  end  of  all  these  great  works  of  divine  wisdom  and 
mercy,  Paul's  philosophical  mind  loves  to  contemplate  and  often 
present — as  here; — viz.,  "that  in  the  ages  to  come,  God  might 
show  forth  (for  his  own  glory) — for  himself,  as  his  Greek  word 
implies — the  surpassing  riches  of  his  grace  in  his  kindness  toward 
us — we  b(ung  in  Christ.     To  reveal  the  fireai  wealth  of  his  lore, 

is,  thus,  the  final  end  sought. But  where  lie  these  "ages"  (or 

aions)  "to  come"  ?  Do  they  lie  between  the  hour  then  present, 
and  the  second  coming  of  Christ?  or  may  they  legitimately  bo 
supposed  to  extend  still  onward  along  the  cycles  of  eternal  dura- 
tion?  So  far  as  I  can  see,  we  can  not  exclude  the  former  pe- 
riod, nor  need  we  the  latter.  Why  may  not  these  revelations  of 
God's  great  m(M-cy  in  the  salvation  of  the  lost  fill  both  the  history 
of  earth  and  the  history  of  heaven  ?     On  Avhat  authority  or  by 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  II.  81 

what  principle  shall  we  attempt  to  rule  either  earth  or  heaven  out 

of  the  pale  of  their  development  and  manifestation? That  the 

"  aions  to  come  "  began  and  had  their  first  range  of  succession 
in  our  world's  time,  during  the  gospel  age,  seems  to  be  beyond 
question.  Admitting  this,  the  fact  shows  that  Paul  did  not  assume 
the  end  of  all  earthly  things  to  be  then  near  at  hand.  There  were 
long  ages  to  come  yet  in  which  God  had  purposed  to  show  forth 
the  exceeding  riches  of  his  love  in  saving  sinners.  Eliicott 
seems  to  suppose  that  all  these  aions  to  come  lie  this  side  the 
eternal  state,  and  vigorously  infers  (as  above  said)  that  Paul  had 
no  thought  of  the  second  coming  and  the  end  of  the  gospel  age 
as  being  near.  I  differ  from  him  only  in  the  point  of  assuming 
that  the  same  showing  forth  of  God's  surpassing  grace  may  fill 
the  everlasting  aions  of  eternity  as  well  as  the  not  everlasting  but 
very  long  aions  of  our  world's  time. 

8.  For  by  grace  are  je  saved  through  faith  ;  and  that  not 
of  yourselves  :  it  is  the  gift  of  God  : 

9.  Not  of  works,  lest  any  man  should  boast. 

10.  For  we  are  his  w^orkmanship,  created  in  Christ  Jesus 
unto  good  works,  which  God  hath  before  ordained  that  we 
should  walk  in  them. 

"And  that,  not  of  yourselves  :  " — yet  the  reader  of  our  English 
version  is  perplexed  to  judge  which  is  the  true  antecedent  of  the 
word  "  that,"  whether  grace,  or  faith,  or  the  being  saved.  The 
language  in  which  Paul  wrote  is  more  definite  than  ours ;  hence 
the  gender  of  his  words  shows  that  his  "  that  "  refers  not  directly 
to  "grace,"  nor  to  "faith,"  but  to  being  saved.  What  he  said, 
therefore,  was  that  this  salvation  is  not  of  yourselves,  but  is  the 
free  gift  of  God.  Moreover,  in  v.  9,  he  still  speaks,  not  of  grace, 
nor  of  faith,  but  of  this  salvation  "which  is  not  of  works,"  so  that, 
consequently,  no  man  can  boast.  Manifestly  he  had  no  occa- 
sion to  say  in  this  v.  9  that  grace  is  not  of  works,  or  that  faith  is 
not  of  works ;  but  he  had  reason  to  say  that  salvation  is  not  of 
works. 

Yet  further,  all  boasting  is  still  more  peremptorily  excluded  by 
the  fact  that  all  the  moral  good  that  is  in  us  is  there  by  reason  of  the 
new  birth  we  have  from  God.  We  are  his  making  and  his  work, 
new-born  to  a  holy  life  by  his  spiritually  creative  power.  The 
passage  manifestly  alludes  by  way  of  figure  lying  in  his  words, 
to  the  original  creation  of  man  in  Eden.  We  are  thus  new 
created  unto  good  works — to  the  end  that  we  may  do  good  works 
— may  be  always  doing  good  works  and  none  other  but  good. 
Therefore,  while  Paul  is  careful  to  say  that  salvation  is  not  by 
works,  i.  e.y  of  merit,  he  is  also  careful  to  say  that  the  new  crea- 
tive birth  was  designed  of  God  to  be  the  beginning  of  a  neiv  life 

of  good  works. God  has  in  advance  prepared,  marked  out,  this 

highway  of  holiness  for  his  people  to  walk  in.    Isaiah  saw  it  and 


82  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.   II. 

spoke  of  it  centurios  before: — "An  highway  shall  be  there  and 
a  way,  and  it  shall  be  called  the  way  of  holiness  "  (35  :  8). 

11.  Wherefore  remember,  that;  ye  being  in  time  past  Gen- 
tiles in  the  flesh,  who  are  called  Uncircumcision  by  that 
which  is  called  the  Circumcision  in  the  liesh  made  by  hands ; 

12.  That  at  that  time  ye  were  without  Christ,  being 
aliens  from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel,  and  strangers  from 
the  covenants  of  promise,  having  no  hope,  and  without  God 
in  the  world : 

It  is  always  in  order,  always  spiritually  useful,  to  remember 
the  old  state  of  moral  ruin  and  desolation  from  which  the  grace 
of  God  has  brought  us  deliverance.  So  here  Paul  calls  upon  his 
Ephesian  converts  to  remember  their  old  heathen  life — how  they 
were  scornfully  called  "the  Uncircumcised"  by  those  who  took 
pride  in  their  circumcision,  though  it  was  in  their  case  only  a 
hand-made  ihinf/ — only  in  and  of  the  flesh — not  of  the  heart. 
For  even  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  carefully  brought  out  the 
spiritual  work  which  circumcision  symbolized,  and  never  designed 
that  men  should  rest  in  the  mere  external  rite.  See  Deut.  10:  16 
and  30:  6  and  Jer.  4:4;  also  in  the  New  Testament,  Rom.  2: 
28,  29,  Phil.  3:  Sand  Col.  2:  11. 

In  their  former  heathen  life,  they  had  no  Christ;  were  aliens 
from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel ;  were  left  out  (apparently)  from 
the  covenants  of  promise;  had  no  hope — i.  e.,  none  within  knowl- 
edge— for  they  knew  not  then  what  God  had  really  prepared  for 
the  Gentile  world: — and  were  therefore  in  a  state  which  they 
must  have  felt  to  be  hopeless.  And  were  atheists.  Godless  in  the 
world.  Ellicott  remarks  that  this  word  "atheists"  ("without 
God  "  in  our  version)  may  be  taken  either  as  active,  as  neuter,  or 
as  passive : — (a)  active  in  the  sense  of  positively  denying,  dis- 
owning God  ;  or  (b)  neuter  in  the  sense  of  being  ignorant  of  God, 
and  so,  of  having  nothing  consciously  to  do  with  God ;  or  (c) 
passive  in  the  sense  of  being  forsaken  of  God,  abandoned,  left 
out  to  their  hopeless  doom.  Perhaps  the  last  named  is  most  in 
the  line  of  thought  in  this  context,  which  aims  to  set  forth  not  so 
much  their  guilt  as  their  desolate  surroundings — the  darkness  and 
sadness  of  their  Pagan  life,  upon  which  at  the  time  referred  to, 
no  ray  of  gospel  light  hud  yet  dawned. 

13.  But  now,  in  Christ  Jesus,  ye  who  sometime  were  far 
off'  are  made  nigh  by  the  blood  of  Christ. 

14.  For  he  is  our  peace,  Avho  hath  made  both  one,  and 
hath  broken  down  the  middle  wall  of  partition  between  us; 

15.  Having  alwlished  in  his  flesh  the  enmity,  eveii  the 
law  of  commandnieuts  contained  in  ordinances  ;  for  to  nuike 
in  himself  of  twain  one  new  man,  .so  nuiking  peace; 

16.  And  that  he  might  reconcile  both  unto  God  in  one 
body  by  the  cros.s,  having  slain  the  enmity  thereby : 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  II.  83 

17.  And  came  and  preached  peace  to  you  which  were  afar 
off,  and  to  them  that  were  nigh. 

18.  For  through  him  we  both  have  access  by  one  Spirit 
unto  the  Father. 

Here  is  the  other  side  of  the  contrast — their  case  now,  set  over 
against  their  case  then.  Then  far  off;  now  brought  nigh,  and 
this  by  the  blood  of  Christ — this  blood  being  shed  alike  "for  all, 
whether  Jew  or  Gentile.  It  is  Paul's  strong  point  throughout 
this  passage  that  all  there  is  of  hope  and  blessedness  in  their 
present  as  contrasted  with  their  past,  is  due  to  Christ.  He  has 
died  equally  for  all ;  his  hand  has  broken  down  the  partition 
wall  which  so  long  shut  Gentile  away  from  Jew  and  out  of  God's 
ancient  temple.  His  word  of  authority  had  annulled  those  an- 
cient ritual  ordinances  and  so  had  demolished  that  long-standing 
barrier  whose  caste-power  had  kept  Jew  and  Gentile  asunder.  By  ' 
his  cross  he  had  brought  the  two  peoples  into  one  new  man,  so 
making  peace  between  them,  with  not  the  least  occasion  thence- 
forth for  the  old  antagonism.  One  precious  proof  of  the  peace 
and  oneness  henceforth  to  obtain  between  Jew  and  Gentile  lay 
in  the  fact  that  "  we  both  have  access  by  one  Spirit  unto  the 
Father."  The  same  divine  Spirit  led  both  Jew  and  Gentile  to  the 
same  great  Father.  No  Jew  could  have  access  to  the  Father  save 
by  this  one  Spirit,  and  no  Gentile  either.  However  much  either 
party  would,  neither  one  could  have  the  least  pre-eminence  above 
the  other  in  this  respect — so  entirely  vital  to  all  Christian  life, 
viz.,  their  access  to  God  through  the  Spirit. 

In  this  passage  the  reader  will  notice  how  much  is  said  of  the  old 
"  enmity,"  and  of  the  newly  found  "  peace  "  between  Jew  and  Gen- 
tile. He  will  see  good  reason  for  Paul's  strong  views  and  feelings 
on  these  points  if  he  will  recall  to  mind  what  Paul  himself  had  suf- 
fered from  that  enmity  and  enjoyed  in  the  prospective  peace.  That 
enmity  broke  off  his  missionary  travels  and  labors;  imperiled  his 
life;  cost  him  his  long  confinement  at  Cesarea;  his  successive  ar- 
raignments before  the  Jewish  Council,  before  Felix,  before  Festus 
and  Agrippa ;  his  shipwreck  ;  his  two  years'  confinement  at  Rome. 
Still  smarting  under  this  persistent,  bigoted,  malign  enmity;  com- 
forted only  with  the  precious  assurance  that  God's  truth  must  tri- 
umph ere  long  and  this  enmity  give  place  to  the  peace  that  Jesus 
had  bought  on  the  cross,  he  is  now  laboring  to  impress  upon  his 
Ephesian  brethren  the  glorious  inheritance  of  gospel  peace  to 
which  they  have  come. 

19.  Now  therefore  ye  are  no  more  strangers  and  foreigners, 
but  felloAV  citizens  with  the  saints,  and  of  the  household  of 
God: 

20.  And  are  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and 
prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the  chief  corner  f^tone; 

21.  In  whom  all  the  building  fitly  framed  together  grow- 
eth  unto  a  holy  temple  in  the  Lord: 


'84  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.   II. 

22.  In  whom  ye  also  are  builded  together  for  a  habitation 
of  God  through  the  Spirit. 

No  more  what  ye  were  (as  said  in  v.  12)  but  fellow-citizens 
having  common  rights  with  all  the  saints  and  at  home  in  the 
house  and  family  of  God;  domestics  of  his  household;  "sons 
and  daughters  of  the  Lord  Almighty." "Built  upon  the  foun- 
dation," i.  e.,  upon  the  truth  preached  by  apostles  and  prophets, 
for  only  in  this  sense  were   they  built  upon  any  men,  even  the 

best   and   most   inspired. But  who    are    meant   here   by  the 

"  prophets"  ?  Shall  we  say,  those  of  the  Old  Testament,  or  those 
of  the  New?  The  latter  are  apparently  in  the  apostle's  mind — 
for  there  were  "prophets"  in  that  Christian  age,  the  gift  of 
prophecy  being  one  of  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit;  because  apostles 
were  put  first  in  order  as  superior  to  prophets — while  the  reverse 
order  should  be  expected  if  the  reference  were  to  prophets  of  the 
Old  Testament;  but  especially  because  this  sense  of  the  word 
"prophets"  is  demanded  by  the  parallel  passages;  e.g.,  Ephes.  3: 
5 :   "As  it  is  now  revealed  unto  his  holy  apostles  and  prophets  Ijy 

the  Spirit";  also  4:  II  and  1  Cor.  12:  28. "  Christ  the  chief 

cornerstone,"  is  an  allusion  to  Psalm  118:  22;  of  which  Peter 
also  has  made  similar  use  (1  Eps.  2:  4-6), 

The  figure  common  with  Paul  which  represents  each  Christian's 
body  as  a  livinsi;  temple  within  which  the  Holy  Spirit  dwells  (see 
1  Cor.  3:  16,  17  and  6:  19  and  2  Cor.  6:  16)  is  slightly  modified 
here,  the  universal  church  being  such  a  temple,  and  each  new 
individual  church,  or  better,  each  new  convert,  is  a  new  stone 
laid  into  its  walls,  causins;  the  temple  walls  to  rise  with  each  ac- 
cession, and  thus  grow  into  one  vast  temple  in   the  Lord  within 

which  God  dwells  by  his  Spirit. Ye   also   (Paul  would    say) 

liave  come  to  this  distinguished  honor — that  of  being  builded  into 
this  glorious  temple. 

Very  noticeable  is  the  grouping  together  of  all  the  persons  of 
the  Trinity  in  close  connection,  as  here,  v.  22.  "In  whom" 
(.lesus  Christ)  "  ye  are  builded  together  for  an  habitation  of 
God"  (the  Father),  "throu<i;h  the  Holy  Ghost."  There  was  a 
special  charm  for  Paul  in  this  precious  groupino;.  It  implied  the 
active  co-operation  of  each  person  of  the  Trinity  in  the  scheme 
of  salvation;  it  accorded  to  each  due  honor,  and  it  d<)u)>tless  sug- 
gested the  perfection  of  this  redemptive  work,  wrought  out  by 
the  somewhat  distinct  yet  harmonious  and  united  energies  of 
Father,  Son  and  Iloly  Ghost. 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.    III.  85 


CHAPTER    III. 

Addressing  them  as  then  a  prisoner  in  their  behalf  (v.  1),  he 
is  diverted  to  speak  of  the  special  commission  given  him  by  rev- 
elation to  bear  the  gospel  to  Gentiles  (v.  2-4) ;  an  extension  of 
its  blessings,  long  almost  unknown  (v.  5,  6),  jbut  through  God's 
great  grace  committed  to  Paul  that  he  might  preach  these  un- 
searchable riches  of  Christ  among  Gentiles  (v.  7,  8),  which  limit- 
less extension  of  gospel  blessings  would  reveal  to  all  the  hosts  of 
heaven  God's  manifold  wisdom  (v.  9,  10),  according  to  his  eternal 
purpose  (v.  11,  12).  Therefore  let  them  not  be  disheartened  by 
what  he  suffers  for  them  (v.  13).  The  blessings  he  implores  of 
God  in  their  behalf  (v.  14-21). 

1.  For  this  cause  I  Paul,  the  prisoner  of  Jesus  Christ 
for  you  Gentiles, 

This  entire  chapter  is  a  parenthesis — a  digression  suggested  by 
this  allusion  to  his  then  pending  imprisonment  at  Rome  because 
he  would  preach  Christ's  gospel  to  Gentiles.  Following  out  this 
suggestive  fact,  he  fills  the  chapter  with  consecutive  thoughts 
and  experiences  hinging  upon  his  gospel  mission  to  the  Gentile 
world,  and  leading  on  to  the  great  plans  of  God  which  had  pro- 
vided such  mercy  for  the  wide  world. 

The  construction  of  v.  1  is  not  this — For  this  cause  I  Paul  am 
now  the  prisoner,  etc.,  but  rather  this:  For  this  cause  I  Paul, 
being  the  prisoner  of  Christ  for  you  Gentiles,  beseech  you  (chap. 
4:  1)  that  ye  walk  worthily  of  such  a  calling  as  ye  have  from 
God. 

The  first  words  here — "  For  this  cause  " — refer  back  to  the  close 
of  the  previous  chapter,  meaning :  For  the  sake  of  building  you 

up  into  that   glorious   spiritual   temple. We  must  not  forget 

that  Paul  wrote  this  letter  from  Rome  during  that  very  imprison- 
ment which  grew  out  of  his  arrest  at  Jerusalem  because  he 
preached  to  Gentiles  (see  Acts  21 :  27  and  onward  through  chap- 
ters 22-28). 

2.  If  ye  have  heard  of  the  dispensation  of  the  grace  of 
God  which  is  given  me  to  you-ward : 

3.  How  that  by  revelation  he  made  known  unto  me  the 
mystery  ;   (as  I  wrote  afore  in  a  few  words ; 

4.  Whereby,  when  ye  read,  ye  may  understand  my  knowl- 
edge in  the  mystery  of  Christ,) 

5.  Which  in  other  ages  was  not  made  known  unto  the 
sons  of  men,  as  it  is  now  revealed  unto  his  holy  apostles  and 
prophets  by  the  Spirit; 

6.  That  the  Gentiles  should  be   fellow  heirs,  and  of  the 


86  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.    III. 

same  body,  and  partakers  of  his  promise  in  Christ  by  the 
gospel: 

"  If  ye  have  heard  "  scarcely  implies  the  least  doubt  as  to  their 
havini!;   heard,  but   modestly  recalls  the   circumstances  to  their 

minds. "Dispensation" — the  trust  or  commission  given  me  to 

publish  God's  rich  grace   toward  you. "The  mystery"  (v.  3) 

is  so  called  because  long  unrevealed,  though  now^  made  known — 
the  mvsterious  thing  being  the  equal  share  in  gospel  privileges 
which  God  gives  to  Gentiles.  After  long  ages  of  exclusion,  all 
covenants  and  promises  being  restricted  to  Abraham  and  his  pos- 
terity, the  truth  at  last  came  forth  to  light,  that  Gentiles  are  to 
be  fellow-heirs  of  all  these  promised  blessings,  and  are  to  have 

the  whole  gospel  equally  with  Jews. This  mystery,  Paul  says, 

(v.  3)  was  first  made  known  to  him  by  special  revelation.  This 
he  had   already  spoken  of  briefly — i.  e.,  in   this  epistle   (not  in 

some  other).     Compare  1:  9  and  2:   13,  and  especially  3:  6. 

In  V.  5  "the  prophets"    must  be   those  of  the  Christian,  not  of 

the  ancient  Jewish,  age. In  v.  6  the  point  of  equal  fellowship 

is  emphasized  by  repetition :  a  common  heirship ;  in  a  common 
body,  the  church ;  by  a  common  partaking  of  all  the  promises. 

7.  Whereof  I  was  made  a  minister,  according  to  the  gift 
of  the  grace  of  God  given  unto  me  by  the  effectual  working 
of  his  power. 

8.  Unto  me,  who  am  less  than  the  least  of  all  saints,  is 
this  grace  given,  that  I  should  preach  among  the  Gentiles 
the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ ; 

9.  And  to  make  all  men  see  what  is  the  fellowship  of  the 
mystery,  which  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  hath  been 
hid  in  God,  who  created  all  things  by  Jesus  Christ: 

10.  To  the  intent  that  now  unto  the  principalities  and 
powers  in  heavenly  places  might  be  known  by  the  church 
the  manifold  wisdom  of  God, 

11.  According  to  the  eternal  purpose  which  he  purposed 
in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord : 

12.  In  whom  we  have  boldness  and  access  with  confidence 
by  the  faith  of  him. 

Paul  can  not  think  of  his  great  gospel  commission  to  the  Gen- 
tiles without  being  overwhelmed  with  a  sense  of  the  miracle  of 
mercy  manifested  upon  hiiu  in  that  though  less  than  the  least  of 
all  saints,  he  should  be  honored  with  this  service  of  preaching 
among  Gentiles  Christ's  riches  of  grace — riches  that  no  human 
thought  can  measure — no  human  speech  adequately  express — all 
untraceable,  unsearchable ! 

The  ultimate  "  intent"  of  this  great  gospel  scheme  (v.  10)  is  to 
make  known  throughout  all  licavcjn  the  manifold,  endlessly  va- 
ried, wisdom  of  Cud,  and  to  make  this  known  in  and  ihruujk  the 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.   III.  87 

church,  in  their  passive,  not  active,  relations ;  i.  e.,  not  through 
what  they  do,  but  through  what  God  does  in  regard  to  them,  the 
special  point  in  mind  here  being  the  great  enlargement  of  the 
gospel  scheme  during  the  Christian  age   as  contrasted  with  its 

apparent  limitations  during  the  ages  before  Christ  came. All 

this  was  in  accordance  with  God's  eternal  purpose — was  not  any 
new  or   after-thought,    but   Avas    fully  embraced   in    the   gospel 

scheme    as  originally   framed   in  the  mind  of   God. It    was 

wrought  out — carried  into  effect — in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  in 
whom  therefore  we  have  all  freedom  of  utterance,  the  freest  ex- 
pression of  our  heart's  desire — an  open  and  easy  access  with  all 
confidence  by  reason  of  our  faith  in  him. 

13.  Wherefore  I  desire  that  ye  faint  not  at  my  tribula- 
tions for  you,  which  is  your  glory. 

Wherefore  (/.  e.,  because  we  have  such  a  Savior  and  such 
ground  for  confidence  in  him),  I  implore  (better  than  "desire") 
you  not  to  lose  heart  in  my  tribulations  for  you ; — not  to  be  dis- 
couraged because  of  them  nor  oppressed  with  sympathy  for  my 
sufi'erings,  because  these  sufferings  arc  really  your  glory.  They 
come  of  your  exalted  gospel  privileges,  and  of  the  fact  that  God 
loves  you  so  well  as  to  let  his  servants  suffer  bitter  persecution 
for  your  sake. 

14.  For  this  cause  I  bow  my  knees  unto  the  Father  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ, 

15.  Of  whom  the  whole  family  in  heaven  and  earth  is 
named, 

"  For  this  cause"  (that  ye  may  be  full  of  courage  and  hopeful- 
ness) I  bow  my  knees  in  prayer. After  "  the  Father,"  the  best 

manuscripts  omit  the  Avords — "of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  The 
prominent  thought  here  is  of  God,  not  as  the  Father  of  Jesus 
Christ,  but  as  the  Father  of  every  branch  of  his  great  family  of 
saints  whether  in  earth  or  heaven.  In  Paul's  Greek  the  word  for 
"family"  suggests  the /aif/icr  at  the  head  of  it.  All  this  great 
family  in  every  branch  takes  name  from  its  Father,  as  all  chil- 
dren should.  They  are  God's  sons  and  daughters— a  godly 
people. 

16.  That  he  would  grant  you,  according  to  the^  riches  of 
his  glory,  to  be  strengthened  with  might  by  his  Spirit  in  the 
inner  man ; 

17.  That  Christ  may  dwell  in  your  hearts  by  faith  ;  that 
ye,  being  rooted  and  grounded  in  love, 

18.  May  be  able  to  com  pretend  with  all  saints  what  is 
the  breadth,  and  length,  and  depth,  and  height ; 

19.  And  to  know  the  love  of  Christ,  which  passeth 
knowledge,  that  ye  might  be  filled  with  all  the  fullness  of 
God. 


88  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  III. 

Here  are  grouped  the  special  objects  of  his  prayer  in  their  be- 
half:— first,  that  the  blessings  given  may  be  in  measure  ''accord- 
ing to  the  riches  of  his  glory" — "his  glory"  signifying  here  that 
which  he  accounts  his  chief  glory,  viz.,  his  ineffable  love — or  if 
we  say,  the  fullness  of  his  divine  perfections,  still,  of  these,  love 
is  evermore  central  and  supreme,  pervading  all  with  its  unspeak- 
able beauty  and  excellence. According  to  the  wealth  of  this 

incomparable  love,  Paul  prays  that  God's  blessings  upon  them 
may  be  measured. 

The  specific  blessings  asked  for  begin  with  spiritual  strength 
— that  they  may  be  mightily  strengthened  by  the  Spirit  whose 
very  name  and  synonym  is  "power"  (Luke  24:  49  and  Acts  1: 

8). "In  the  inner  man" — not  the   outer;  not  the  body,  but 

the  soul.  (See  2  Cor.  4:  16); — or,  which  looks  to  the  same  re- 
sult, and  is  God's  way  of  making  the  Christian  heart  "strong" 
by  the  Spirit: — "that  Christ  may  dwell  in  your  hearts  by  faith" 
— this  indwelling  signifying  precisely  the  manifestation  of  Jesus 
which  himself  promised  (John  16:  13-15  and  15:  26)  as  to  be 
wrought  by  the  Holy  Ghost.     Faith  in  Christ's  promise  to  this 

effect  brings  the  blessing. The  place  of  this  abode  is  to  be  tho 

lieart — the  power  being  not  of  words  warbling  on  the  tongue ; 
not  of  speculations  revolving  in  the  brain;  but  Christ's  own 
presence  abiding  in  the  heart — the  heart  as  the  seat  of  love,  the 
organ  of  man's  controlling  will-power,  the  home  for  the  spirit  of 
self-consecration  and  holy  purpose.  This  heart  of  man  Paul 
prays  may  be  imbued  through  and  through  with  the  power  of  a 

present  Christ. With  love  in  your  heart  at  the  very  bottom 

of  your  character — as  the  root  to  the  tree  or  the  foundation  to 
the  building  that  rests  upon  it — my  prayer  is  that  ye  may  be  ablo 
— may  be  made  strong.  Paul's  word  means — to  comprehend  as 
with  firm  grasp  of  mind  that  shall  fully  take  in  the  utmost  di- 
mensions of  Christ's  love — its  breadth  and  length  and  depth  and 
height — as  if  Paul  would  help  us  to  great  conceptions  by  sug- 
gesting material  size  and  vastness.  But  his  precise  thought  is 
that  ye  may  know  the  love  Christ  has  for  you  though  that  love 
surpasses  your  utmost  reach  of  mind  or  utmost  sense  of  great- 
ness— to  the  end  that  ye  may  be  filled — not  precisely  "with" 
but  ''unto  all  the  fullness  of  God;" — filled  till  you  reach  this  ut- 
termost limit — viz.,  all  the  fullness  which  belongs  to  God — which 
is  provided  for  in  his  storehouse  of  boundless  supply. 

What  grand  conceptions  are  these  of  the  depth  and  glory 
of  the  Savior's  love — of  the  sublime  possibilities  of  compre- 
hending it  in  thought;  of  knowing  it  till  all  its  power  shall  take 
effect  in  the  soul,  and  we  are  filled  indeed  up  to  the  measure  of 
God's  unspeakable  fullness ! 

For  all  this,  Paul  testifies  tlftit  he  prays  in  their  behalf,  that  it 
may  become  real  in  their  personal  experience. 

20.  Now  unto  him  that  is  able  to  do  exceeding  a])un- 
dantly  above  all  that  we  ask  or  think,  according  to  the 
pnver  that  worketh  in  us, 


EPHESIiVNS. — CHAP.    III.  89 

21.  Unto  him  be  glory  in  the  church  by  Christ  Jesus 
throughout  all  ages,  world  without  end.     Amen. 

The  crowning  glory  of  this  prayer  is  that  it  is  no  idle 
wishing;  it  asks  for  no  merely  imaginary  but  never  to  be  real- 
ized blessings  ;  does  not  raise  expectation  above  the  power  of  the 
Great  Giver  to  fulfill;  but  addresses  One  who  is  gloriously  able  to 
do  all — ^yea  far  more  than   all,  we  can  ask  or  even  conceive  in 

thought. Paul  speaks  of  this  great  power  in  God  to  do  for  his 

people  as  being  "  according  to  the  power  that  works  with  energy 
within  us  " — words  which  must  be  supposed  to  refer  as  usual,  to 
the  same  power  which  God  wrought  upon  Christ  in  raising  him 
from  the  dead  and  exalting  him  to  sit  at  his  own  right  hand  in 
heaven.  The  power  that  could  so  easily  accomplish  all  this  in 
Jesus  Christ  is  proved  to  be  equal  to  any  result  it  may  propose 
to  achieve  for  his  people. 

To  the  great  God,  having  such  power,  capable  of  working  with 
all  this  inexpressible  energy,  committed  to  do  abundantly  above 
all  we  can  ask  and  think  of— let  glory  be  given  in  the  church  and 
in  Christ  Jesus  unto  all  the  generations  of  aions  of  aions — long 
as  the  everlasting  cycles  of  eternal  duration  shall  move  on  ! 

As  there  is  no  conceivable  limit  to  the  riches  of  his  grace :  no 
limit  to  the  vastness  of  his  power  to  uplift,  sustain  and  bless  his 
believing  loving  children,  so  let  there  be  no  limit  of  time  or 
of  measure  to  the  glory  ascribed  to  his  great  name! — And  to 
this  prayer,  let  all  people — all  the  vast  populations  of  earth  and 
of  heaven — say  amen  ! 

Pausing  here  a  moment  to  retrace  the  course  of  thought  in 
this  wonderful  chapter  with  an  eye  toward  the  particular  truth 
which  had  such  suggestive  poAver  on  the  mind  and  heart  of  Paul, 
inspiring  such  prayer  and  such  lofty  conceptions  of  Christ's  love 
and  of  God's  fullness  of  grace  and  plenitude  of  power,  we  may 
readily  find  it  in  that  "  mystery  made  known  to  him  by  special 
revelation,"  viz.,  the  long  unrevealed  plan  of  God  under  which 
the  gospel  was  to  go  to  the  Gentile  world.  That  Gentiles  were  to 
be  fellow-heirs  with  the  seed  of  Abraham ;  of  the  same  "  body 
of  Christ,"  the  church ;  partakers  of  all  the  promises  made  in 
Christ  through  the  gospel ; — this  it  was  that  filled  the  mind  of 
Paul;  that  lifted  his  soul  as  upon  the  ground-swell  of  the  ocean; 
that  bore  him  up  to  the  height  of  these  lofty  conceptions  and  laid 
open  to  his  view  the  immeasurable  glories  of  the  gospel.  In  this 
grand  enlargement  of  the  gospel  plan,  he  saw  the  wealth  of  God's 
mercies  and  the  glory  of  his  great  thoughts  of  love  for  our  race. 
It  bore  him  back  into  those  sublime  prophecies  of  Isaiah  who  had 
risen  to  the  height  of  this  great  argument  ages  before,  and  who 
had  felt  the  sublime  inspiration  of  this  theme — salvation  for  the 
whole  Gentile  world!  Remarkably  these  two  master  minds — 
each  in  his  respective  dispensation,  Isaiah  in  the  old  and  Paul 
in  the  new,  were  drawn  into  a  common  sympathy  and  lifted  to  a 
common  sublimity  of  thought  and  of  emotion  under  the  power 
of  this    same  great   truth.     It  scarcely  need   be  said  that  the 


90  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  IV. 

thought  of  Paul,  as  of  Isaiah,  was — not  of  a  gospel  planned  of 
God  for  the  meager  few  out  of  the  Gentile  world,  but  for  the 
surging  masses  ;  not  for  certain  limited  localities  but  for  "  the 
ends  of  the  earth ;  "  not  merely  sending  forth  some  scattered  rays 
of  divine  light  and  knowledge,  but  rather  of  the  earth  made 
"full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea." 


>j«4c 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Paul  exhorts  to  a  worthy  Christian  life  (v.  1) ;  in  real  humility 
and  forbearance  (v.  2),  and  specially  in  the  spirt  of  unity  and  the 
fellowship  of  love  (v.  3)j  because  the  church  is  one  body; 
Christians  have  one  hope  (v.  4),  with  one  common  Savior  and  one 
divine  Father  (v.  5,  6) ;  albeit  there  are  diversities  of  spiritual 
gifts  (v.  7).  Christ  has  given  diverse  classes  of  spiritual  teachers 
variously  endowed  by  himself  (v.  8-11);  all  for  the  purpose  of 
perfecting  the  Christian  life  of  his  people  (v.  12)  into  the  unity 
of  fiiith  and  of  Christian  doctrine  (v.  13)  and  full  development 
from  Christian  childhood  to  a  strong  and  true  manhood  (v.  14) ; 
growing  up  into  Christ  who  fills  the  functions  of  head  to  the 
spiritual  body  (v.  15,  16).  Therefore,  let  them  not  walk  as  the 
heathen  (v.  17-19),  but  as  they  have  learned  of  Christ,  in  the  new 
life  (v.  20-24),  truthful  toward  each  other  (v.  25) ;  self-controlled 
in  temper  (v.  26,  27) ;  not  stealing  (v.  28),  nor  talking  foolishly 
(v.  29),  nor  grieving  the  Spirit  (v.  30) ;  but  eschewing  all  mali- 
cious selfishness  (v.  31);  cherishing  all  kindness,  forgiveness  and 
mutual  love  (v.  32). 

1.  I  therefore,  the  prisoner  of  the  Lord,  beseech  you  that 
ye  walk  worthy  of  the  vocation  wherewith  ye  are  called, 

2.  With  all  lowliness  and  meekness,  with  long-sufiering, 
forbearing  one  another  in  love  ; 

3.  Endeavoring  to  keep  the  iniity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond 
of  peace. 

Paul  resumes  his  exhortation  at  the  point  where  he  broke  off 
at  the  beginning  of  chapter  3,  putting  his  Avords  in  this  emphatic 
order:  "Entreat  you,  therefore,  do  1,  the  prisoner  of  the  Lord, 
that  ye  walk  worthily  of  the  calling  by  which  ye  are  called"  (as 
]  have  been  showing  you).  1'he  logical  term  "therefore"  looks 
back  for  its  ground  to  the  points  made  in  the  previous  chapter : 
Inasmuch  as  ye  have  such  a  gospel,  welcoming  you  to  an  equal 
participation  with  .lews  in  all  its  privileges ;  inasmuch  as  ye  have 
such  a  Savior,  miglity  beyond  your  utmost  tliought  to  do  abund- 
antly more  than  ye  can  ask  or  think;  rich  in  his  love  more  than 
ye  can  ever  comprehend ;  O  then,  see  that  ye  walk  worthily  of 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.    IV.  91 

such  a  calling,  into  such  fellowship  with  Christ  and  communion 
with  all  his  saints ! 

"Prisoner  of  the  Lord"  should  be  "^?^  the  Lord,"  the  sense 
being  not,  I,  the  Lord's  prisoner;  but  I,  though  indeed  a  prisoner, 
yet  am  none  the  less  ''in  the  Lord,"  and  find  such  living  in  my 
Lord  to  be  my  paradise.  Be  not,  therefore,  afilicted  because  of 
my  imprisonment,  but  rather  think  of  me  as  evermore  joyful  be- 
cause "  in  the  Lord''  Moreover,  live  ye,  not  in  a  spirit  of  pride 
or  overbearing  haughtiness  as  toward  others,  but  in  great  humil- 
ity and  meekness. 

"Forbearing  one  another"  means  exercising  self-restraint  as  to 
all  evil  passions  toward  each  other,  and  doing  this  in  love.  La- 
boring with  all  diligence  to  maintain  the  feeling  of  oneness  which 
is  wrought  in  the  heart  by  the  Holy  Ghost — the  feeling  that  ye 
are  one  pre-eminently  in  mutual  love — in  the  bonds  which  Chris- 
tian peace  wreathes  around  kindred  souls.  It  was  not  the  unity 
that  is  outward  only,  in  visible  organization,  however  desirable 
that  may  be,  but  the  unity  of  mutually  loving  hearts. 

4.  There  is  one  body,  and  one  Spirit,  even  as  ye  are  called 
in  one  hope  of  your  calling ; 

5.  One  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism, 

6.  One  God  and  Father  of  all,  who  is  above  all,  and 
through  all,  and  in  you  all. 

The  question  whether  we  are  to  read,  There  is  one  body,  or  Ye 
are  one  body  (each  of  which  would  yield  a  good  sense),  is  prop- 
erly decided  by  the  demands  of  v.  5,  6,  to  which  we  must  supply 
"  There  is."  Therefore,  legitimately,  we  must  fill  the  ellij^sis  in 
this  way  throughout  the  passage:  "There  is  one  body" — the 
church — and  but  one;  "one  Spirit" — the  Holy  Ghost;  and  ye  are 
all  called  in  one  glorious  hope — one  and  the  same  to  every  be- 
lieving soul, So.  also,  there  is  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ  whom  all 

alike  obey ;  one  faith  in  the  exercise  of  which  each  saved  soul 
must  receive  him ;  one  baptism  with  its  significance  common  to 
all,  viz.,  a  solemn  pledge  and  covenant  of  consecration  to  the 
Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  with  a  common  sym- 
bolic significance  of  moral  cleansing,  water  being  ever  the  scrip- 
tural symbol  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  So  also  there  is  one  God  and 
Father  of  all,  manifesting  himself  in  the  threefold  relationof 
being  over  (above)  all  as  Father ;  throvf/h  all  in  his  revealing 
power  as  Son ;  and  in  all  by  his  indAvelling  presence  as  Spirit. 
That  there  is  a  purposed  allusion  to  the  manifestations  of  God  in 
his  Trinity,  presented  here  under  these  three  prepositions  ("  over ;' 
"  through;"  "  in")  is  at  least  probable  on  two  grounds:  (a.)  That 
such  allusions  to  the  Trinity  are  a  habit  of  Paul's  thought  (e.  g., 
1  Cor.  12:  4-6);  (6.)  That  we  find  the  conception  of  a  Trinity 
in  this  passage:  "One  Spirit"  (v.  4);  "one  Lord"  (v.  5);  and 
"one  God  the  Father"  (v.  6).  •  _ 

The  bearing  of  these  points  upon  the  duty  of  Christian  fellow- 
ship in  love  is  obvious.     There  cun  be  no  clique  of  Christians, 


92  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.   IV. 

outside  the  one  church,  Christ's  body,  inspired  by  some  other 
spirit  than  the  one  Holy  Ghost;  obeying  some  other  Lord  than 
the  one  Lord  Jesus.  Such  other  group  or  organization  of  clan- 
nish saints,  not  in  sympathy  with  the  one  body  of  Christ's  people, 
is  all  Utopian — wholly  absurd. 

7.  But  unto  every  one  of  us  is  given  grace  according  to 
the  measure  of  the  gift  of  Christ. 

8.  Wherefore  he  saith,  When  he  ascended  up  on  high,  he 
led  captivity  captive,  and  gave  gifts  unto  men. 

9.  (Now  that  he  ascended,  what  is  it  but  that  he  also  de- 
scended first  into  the  lower  parts  of  the  earth  ? 

10.  He  that  descended  is  the  same  also  that  ascended  up 
far  above  all  heavens,  that  he  might  fill  all  things.) 

11.  And  he  gave  some,  apostles;  and  some,  prophets; 
and  some,  evangelists ;  and  some,  pastors  and  teachers  ; 

The  word  "but"  (Greek  "de")  opening  this  sentence,  is  sug- 
gestive of  a  gentle  turn  of  thought,  as  if  Paul  would  say :  Al- 
though in  every  thing  vital  we  have  oneness,  yet  in  certain  very 
minor  points  we  have  variety — viz.,  in  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit. 
His  gracious  endowments  are  diverse  in  kind  and  in  measure, 
and  are  granted  to  us  variously.  Jesus  has  been  pleased  to  be- 
stow them  in  this  variety,  as  Paul  has  said  in  more  detail  (1  Cor. 

12:  4-11;  2  Rom.  12:  6-8). In  this  connection  Paul  sustains 

this  great  fact  by  appeal  (v.  8,  9)  to  ancient  Scripture  (viz.,  Psalm 
68:  19) — a  passage  which  alludes,  historically,  to  the  victory  won 
and  the  spoils  taken  by  the  conquering  hosts  of  Israel  when 
Kabbah  of  Ammon  fell  before  them,  and  the  spoils  were  distrib- 
uted as  rewards  to  brave  officers  and  men.  In  these  words  Paul 
finds  an  admirable  illustration  of  the  conquering  Messiah,  vic- 
torious over  sin  and  Satan,  rising  to  his  own  immortal  throne  in 
the  heavens,  and  thence  distributing  these  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
among  his  people. 

Verses  9  and  10  are  a  brief  digression  to  say  that  Christ's  rising 
and  ascension  involve  a  previous  descent  into  what  are  called  "  the 
lower  parts  of  the  earth."  In  interpreting  this  phrase,  we  must 
choose  between  (a)  the  grave — Hades — and  (/>)  the  earth  below 
as  contrasted  with  the  heavens  above,  in  which  case  the  passage 
refers  to  his  incarnation  and  birth  in  human  flesh.  The  former 
is  to  be  preferred  specially  because  there  is  an  obvious  antithesis 
with  his  rising  from  the  dead  as  well  as  liis  ascension  into  heaven, 
but  no  clear  allusion  to  his  human  birth. — He  who  thus  went 
doivn  is  the  same  who  soon  after  went  vp,  far  above  all  the  lower 
heavens,  to  the  very  throne  of  the  universe,  to  be  supreme  over 
all,  his  dominion  actually  filling  the  universe. 

The  English  translation  of  v.  1 1  is  infelicitous,  inasmuch  as  it 
so  naturally  suggests  false  meanings — either  that  Christ  gave  to 
some  churches,  apostles;  to  others,  [)rophots,  etc.,  or  that  he  gave 
a    few    apostles    and    a    few    prophets — a    few    but    not    many. 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.    IV.  93 

Whereas  the  words  of  Paul  mean  only  that  Christ  gave  these 
several  classes  of  church  oflScers  and  teachers,  viz.,  apostles, 
prophets,  evangelists,  etc.     The  connecting  words  denote  both — 

and;  i.  e.,  these;    and  those;    and  those. The  prophets  here 

are  certainly  those  of  the  gospel  age — not  of  ancient  Hebrew 
times — the  word  not  necessarily  implying  prediction,  but  often 
only  that  they  spake  under  inspiration,  to  instruct,  exhort,  etc. 
Evangelists  difiered  from  pastors  in  the  wider,  less  restricted 
range  of  their  labors,  being  a  class  of  itinerant  preachers,  of 
grade,  however,  subordinate  to  apostles.  Paul  requested  Timothy 
to  do  this  work  at  Ephesus  (2  Tim.  4:  5);  Philip  whose  name 
appears  among  the  seven  (Acts  6 :  3,5)  is  called  "  the  evange- 
list" (Acts  21:  8). Pastors  and  teachers  are  less  broadly  dis- 
tinguished from  each  other  than  the  previously  named  classes. 
Probably  the  lines  of  distinction  between  them  were  not  sharply 
drawn.  Some  critics  suppose  that  the  pastors  had  more  responsi- 
bility in  the  government  than  the  teachers  had. 

12.  For  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ : 

13.  Till  we  all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the 
measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ: 

In  V.  12  the  punctuation  with  a  comma  after  "saints"  assumes 
three  distinct  and  co-ordinate  objects  in  this  verse;  whereas  the 
words  used  by  Paul  indicate  one  nearer,  but  subordinate  object, 
a  means  for  the  attainment  of  the  other  two — this  nearer  one, 
"the  perfeoting  of  the  saints;"  yet  this  perfecting  was  for  the 
further  purposes  of  a  better  gospel  ministry,  and  all,  for  the  edi- 
fying of  Christ's  body,  the  church. Then  v.  13  defines  in  more 

detail  the  results  of  this  edification  of  the  church,  viz.,  to  bring 
all  the  membership  into  the  oneness  of  Christian  belief — belief 
in  the  one  true  system  of  gospel  truth ;  or,  what  is  essentially  the 
same  thing  in  other  words,  into  the  full  knowledge  of  the  Son  of 
God.  Also  unto  a  perfectly  developed  and  mature  Christian 
manhood,  quite  advanced  beyond  being  babes — even  to  that  adult 
development  for  which  full  supplies  of  grace  from  Christ  make 
all  needful  provision. 

'  14.  That  we  henceforth  be  no  more  children,  tossed  to  and 
fro,  and  carried  about  with  every  wind  of  doctrine,  by  the 
sleight  of  men,  and  cunning  craftiness,  whereby  they  lie  in 
wait  to  deceive ; 

15.  But  speaking  the  truth  in  love,  may  grow  up  into 
Mm  in  all  things,  which  is  the  head,  even  Christ : 

16.  From  whom  the  whole  body  fitly  joined  together  and 
compacted  by  that  which  every  joint  supplieth,  according  to 
the  effectual  working  in  the  measure  of  every  part,  maketli 
increase  of  the  body  unto  the  edifying  of  itself  in  love. 


94  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.    IV. 

That  we  be  no  longer  infants  or  even  children  in  knowledge  and 
Christian  stability;  storm-driven  and  tossed  about  with  every 
gust  of  wind — the  conception  being  that  these  doctrinal  fancies 
— errors  of  opinion — are  stiff  winds  driving  the  weak  mariner  as 
they  will ;  and  these  put  in  motion  by  artful  men,  in  their  cun- 
ning craft,  working  toward  and  unto  fatal  deception — a  fatal  mis- 
leading of  the  mind.  Paul's  words  are  not  precisely  "  whereby 
they  lie  in  wait,"  etc.,  but  working  toward  ruinous  error.  Such 
are   the   results  of  reckless,  wayward  speculations  which  really 

subvert  gospel  truth. Over    against  these   misleading  errors, 

allied  to  falsehood,  not  to  truth,  speak  ye  the  truth  in  love. 
Strictly  Paul's  word  means — being  fully  truthful  in  love.  Hold 
the  truth  and  live  out  the  truth  in  a  life  of  love,  as  opposed  to 
the  ambition  and  the  cunning  craft  of  men  supremely  and  only 
selfish.  This  love  ensures  a  healthful  growth  which  will  be  of 
course  growth  into  Christ,  i.  e.,  into  the  knowledge  of  Christ  and 
into  living  union  with  him. 

That  Christ  is  the  head  and  his  people  the  other  members  of 
the  body  is  a  slight  modification  of  the  common  figure  which 
represents  the  church  as  the  very  body  of  Christ.  Here  the  head 
is  thought  of  as  the  central  vital  force  for  the  whole  body,  in 
closest  organic  connection,  sending  its  currents  of  life-power 
down  through  nerves  and  blood,  and  the  whole  frame-work  of  the 
system.  The  whole  body  is  knit  together  and  made  firm  by  a 
wonderful  machinery  of  bones,  tendons,  nerves,  joints,  tissues  of 
various  sort — all  infused  with  vital  force  from  the  head.  The  re- 
sult is  the  perfect  growth  and  development  of  the  body  built  up 
(spiritually  considered)  in  Christian  love. 

17.  This  I  say  therefore,  and  testify  in  the  Lord,  that  ye 
henceforth  walk  not  as  other  Gentiles  walk,  in  the  vanity  of 
their  mind, 

18.  Having  the  understanding  darkened,  being  alienated 
from  the  life  of  God  through  the  ignorance  that  is  in  them, 
because  of  the  blindness  of  their  heart: 

19.  Who  being  past  feeling  have  given  themselves  over 
unto  lasciviousness,  to  work  all  uncleanness  with  greedi- 
ness. 

AVith  the  most  solemn  emphasis  Paul  aflBrms  as  a  witness  under 
oath  before  a  court  of  justice;  and  to  heighten  even  this,  he  affirms 
it  ''in  the  Lord" — in  his  behalf,  as  one  speaking  not  for  man,  but 
for  God  and  for  Jesus  Christ.  Deeply  in  earnest  he  implores  them 
to  walk  no  longer  as  heathen  do — which  he  descri))es  as  being 
*'in  the  vanity  of  the  intelligence" — cvery-where  the  Old  Testa- 
ment conception  of  idolatry — all  its  notions,  vain,  empty,  void  of 
sense,  madly  foolish,  wickedly  over-riding  the  good  sense  with 
which  God  lias  endowed  the  human  mind.  So  Paul  in  Ivom.  1:21, 
22  also  Jer.  10:  8.  Thus  is  "  their  understanding  darkened,"  and 
they  are  alienated  into  dislike  and  aversion  so  as  really  to  hate  that 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.    IV.  95 

pure  life  which  God  gives  to  those  who  will,  by  regeneration  into 
moral  purity.  From  such  life  of  God.,  they  become  utterly 
estranged  in  heart  through  the  working  of  two  causes — their  ig- 
norance, and  their  moral  obduracy — the  ignorance  being  oc- 
casioned by  the  obduracy,  and  this  obduracy  being  intensified  by 

the  fearful  immorality  of  their  lives — as  Paul  proceeds  to  say. 

"Past  feeling" — dead  to  all  just  moral  sensibility;  having  no 
sense  of  the  shame,  the  meanness,  or  the  guilt  of  such  vices — in 
wantonness  they  abandon  themselves  te  the  working  out  of  all 
manner  of  uncleanness,  in  the  spirit  which  forever  cries  more, 

more ! As  to  the  sense  of  the  last  word  of  v.  19,  translated  "  with 

greediness,"  there  is  perhaps  a  slight  question  whether  to  take  it 
in  its  usual  and  special  sense,  covetousness ;  or  in  its  more  general 
sense,  greed,  the  spirit  which  forever  craves  and  demands.  The 
latter  seems  to  me  preferable  here,  since  it  is  not  naturally  the 
name  of  a  new  form  of  sin,  but  of  a  new  element  in  its  nature. 

This  view  of  heathenism  as  to  its  mental  fatuity ;  its  moral, 

self-made  blindness;  and  its  drift  into  all  vices  and  crimes — may 
be  compared  with  Paul's  somewhat  more  extended  description  in 
Rom.  1 — a  mournful  showing:  but  alas!  where  is  it  not  found 
true? 

20.  But  ye  have  not  so  learned  Christ ; 

21.  If  so  be  that  ye  have  heard  him,  and  have  been  taught 
by  him,  as  the  truth  is  in  Jesus : 

22.  That  ye  put  off  concerning  the  former  conversation 
the  old  man,  which  is  corrupt  according  to  the  deceitful 
lusts ; 

23.  And  be  renewed  in  the  spirit  of  your  mind; 

24.  And  that  ye  put  on  the  new  man,  which  after  God  is 
created  in  righteousness  and  true  holiness. 

A  model  of  blended  force  and  beauty  is  this — "  Ye  have  not  so 
learned  Christ !  "  If  ye  have  learned  Christ  at  all,  ye  have  found 
something  utterly  unlike  this.  There  is  nothing  of  this  sort  in 
Jesus  Christ.  "  If  indeed  ye  have  heard  Him  speak,"  Paul 
makes  the  word  Him  emphatic  by  position ;  "  If  Him  ye  have 
heard."  But  we  need  not  restrict  this  hearing  to  Christ's  living 
voice  from  his  personal  presence,  but  may  properly  extend  it  to 
his  voice  speaking  by  his  Spirit  through  human  lips,  this  being 
for  all  practical  purposes  the  very  voice  of  Jesus. Still  expand- 
ing the  thought-— " and  in  him  have  been  taught" — i.  d.,  in  uni- 
son with  him,  according  to  the  common  usage  of  the  words  "  in 
Christ.^'  As  the  very  truth  is  in  respect  to  Jesus,  Paul  being 
very  specific  and  careful  that  what  they  accept  as  gospel  truth 
should  be  the  very  truth  as  to  Jesus,  in  harmony  with  his  real 
character  and   especially  with  his  manifestations  as   Jesus — the 

personal  Savior  of  lost  sinners. Paul  then  proceeds  to  give  the 

moral  aspects  and  bearings  of  this  gospel   truth  (v.  22),  viz.,  that 
in  respect  to  their  entire  former  life  they  put  off  the  old  man — 


96  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.   IV. 

the  entire  old  character — every  thing  that  belonged  to  his  spirit, 
impulses,  motives,  activities — all  of  which  were  morally  rotten  in 
fleshly  lusts ;  and  put  on  the  new  man — a  spirit  renewed  and 
made  godlike  in  righteousness  and  real  holiness. The  interme- 
diate clause,  V.  23  (intermediate  between  putting  off  the  old  and 
putting  on  the  new),  should  have  special  attention.  Its  exposi- 
tion turns  upon  the  word  "  spirit,"  which  ma^r  be  either  the  hu- 
man spirit  or  the  divine.  Our  authorized  version  assumes  it  to  re- 
fer to  the  human,  but  there  is  strong  reason  for  referring  it  to 
the  divine — thus  :  And  be  renewed  (regenerated)  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  whose  sphere  of  action  is  in  the  intelligence,  working 
through  the  truth  unto  the  transformation  of  the  will — the 
"heart" — into  God's  moral  image.  Beyond  question,  Paul  some- 
times conceives  of  the  human  intelligence  ^'  as  being  renewed  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  {e.  g.,  Rom.  12 :  2)  :  "  Be  ye  transformed  b^  the 
renewing  of  your  7nind."  Moreover,  a  reference  to  the  Divine 
Spirit's  agency  is  entirely  legitimate  here.  The  omission  of  it 
could  not  be  easily  accounted  for.  This  construction  of  v.  23  is 
held  by  some  of  the  best  modern  critics  (Ellicott,  Meyer,  etc.). 
Col.  3:  10  should  be  compared:  "Put  on  the  new  man  which  is 
renewed  in  knowledge,  after  the  image  of  him  that  created  him." 

25.  Wherefore  putting  away  lying,  speak  every  man  truth 
with  his  neighbor :  for  we  are  members  one  of  another. 

What  does  the  gospel  renewal  and  the  new  life  of  the  new  man 
imply  ?  Paul  proceeds  to  answer  this  great  question  with  some 
detail.  First  of  all — truthfulness.  Let  every  man  speak  truth 
with  his  neighbor,  and  let  every  human  being  be  a  neighbor  as  to 
this  duty — for  we  are  not  to  think  of  ourselves  as  severed  from 
the  rest  of  mankind,  with  no  interest  to  care  for  but  those  of  our 
personal  selves.  Rather  we  are  members  of  one  another,  parts 
of  one  whole — the  great  unit  of  mankind.  It  is  perhaps  possible 
that  Paul's  thought  is  upon  the  Christian  unity  of  all  Christ's  peo- 
ple in  his  one  body — the  church ;  but  I  see  no  reason  to  limit  the 
demand  for  truthfulness  to  our  Christian  brethren.  All  men,  and 
not  Christians  only,  are  our  neighbors. 

26.  Be  ye  angry,  and  sin  not:  let  not  the  sun  go  down 
upon  your  wrath- 

27.  Neither  give  place  to  the  devil. 

Both  these  verbs  are  in  form  imperatives — as  our  version  has 
them;  but  the  second — "Do  not  sin" — is  made  specially  emphatic 
by  the  Greek  negative.  I  assume  the  sense  of  the  passage  to  be 
this:  When  there  is  occasion  for  a  just  indignation  (as  there  may 
be  and  sometimes  will  be),  no  law  of  God  forbids  your  feeling 
such  indignation;  yet,  Paul  would  say — My  special  admonition  to 
you  is  that  ye  hold  it  well  under  control;  let  it  be  transient;  shut 
down  sharply  upon  it,  and  let  not  the  sun  set  ere  it  be  brought 

*■  vovg" 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  IV.  97 

under.  Let  not  the  sun  go  down  upon  your  mind  under  irritor 
lion.  Let  excited  feeling  cool  off  lest  it  ensnare  you  on  into  sin. 
Neither  give  place  to  the  devil — as  you  would  do  if  you  were  to 
indulge  these  uprisings  of  just  indignation  too  far  or  too  long. 
Satan  would  seize  his  opportunity  to  ensnare  you  to  your  hurt, 

28.  Let  him  that  stole  steal  no  more :  but  rather  let  him 
labor,  working  with  his  hands  the  thing  which  is  good,  that 
he  may  have  to  give  to  him  that  needeth. 

The  moral  system  of  the  gospel  works  a  complete  revolution  in 
regard  to  another  vice,  theft.  Let  every  man  not  only  cease  to  steal, 
but  put  those  same  thievish  hands  of  his  own  (so  the  improved 
text)  to  useful  labor  upon  some  good  thing,  so  that  he  may  not 
only  supply  his  own  wants  by  honest  toil,  but  have  somewhat  to 
give  to  the  needy.  The  transformation  from  stealing  the  fruits 
of  other  men's  toil  to  working  with  his  own  hands  not  only  for 
an  honest  living  but  for  benevolent  giving  as  well,  is  great  and 
blessed — a  fine  illustration  of  what  the  gospel  does  to  regenerate 
society ;  to  dry  the  streams  of  human  misery  and  pour  forth  new 
streams  of  wholesome  life. 

29.  Let  no  corrupt  communication  proceed  out  of  your 
mouth,  but  that  which  is  good  to  the  use  of  edifying,  that  it 
may  minister  grace  unto  the  hearers. 

The  law  of  Christian  morals  extends  to  all  spoken  words ;  none 
can  escape  this  responsibility.  The  word  "corrupt"  is  trans- 
ferred in  usage  from  the  material  world  to  the  spiritual,  meaning 
in  the  former  sphere,  rotten,  offensive ;  and  in  the  latter,  analo- 
gously the  same — injurious  in  its  influence,  offensive,  repulsive  to 
all  right  moral  tastes  and  perceptions.  It  stands  here  in  antithesis 
to  that  which  is  good  for  useful  edifying  and  which  would  minis- 
ter pleasure  and  profit  to  the  hearer.  Perhaps  "  grace  "  should 
not  be  closely  restricted  to  its  highest  Christian  sense;  for  in  its 
general  sense  of  favor,  good,  happiness,  it  yields  a  very  pertinent 
meaning  in  this  connection.  The  doctrine  is — Let  your  words 
conduce  to  the  happiness  of  others.  For  this  noble  end  is  speech 
given.  Therefore  let  no  bad  words  escape  your  lips ;  but  if  there 
be  any  word  good  for  edification  in  some  useful  line,  that  is  the 
word  to  speak;  fail  not  to  speak  it.  "A  word  spoken  in  due  sea- 
son, how  good  it  is!"  (Prov.  15:  23).  "A  word  fitly  spoken  is 
like  apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of  silver  "  (Prov.  25 :  11). 

30.  And  grieve  not  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  whereby  ye 
are  sealed  unto  the  day  of  redemption. 

"Grieve  not  the  Holy  Spirit" — for  He  loves  you  and  rejoices 
in  your  purity  inasmuch  as  your  heart  is  the  temple  of  his  abode, 
and  He  must  therefore  be  grieved  by  your  bad  words  or  bad  tem- 
per.  Note  the  heightened  force  which  comes  from  the  very 

names — "the  Holy  Spirit" — the  Spirit  of  God;" — such  a  spirit 


98  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  IV. 

must  be  not  only  offended  but  deeply  grieved  by  words  or  by 
deeds  uncongenial  to  his  purity,  his  tenderness,  his  benevolence. 
The  more  should  we  feel  the  force  of  this  admonition  because 
it  is  the  office  of  this  Spirit  to  "  seal  you  to  the  daj^  of  redemp- 
tion." This  ensealing  by  the  Spirit  is  particularly  defined  in 
Eph.  1  :  13,  14  and  2  Cor.  1 :  22;  but  especially  in  Rom.  8  :  16. 
These  passages  show  that  this  sealing  is  the  mark  put  upon  (or 
better  loithin)  the  Christian  heart — not  that  God  may  be  able  to 
recognize  us,  but  that  we  may  be  able  to  recognize  ourselves  as 
his  children  and  know  our  title  to  our  inheritance  from  God.  To 
grieve  the  Spirit,  therefore,  might  obscure  this  title,  and  bring 
darkness,  not  to  say,  leanness  upon  our  own  souls.  The  tokens 
of  his  ensealing  will  become  dim,  or,  as  the  case  may  be,  quite 
eflFaced. 

31.  Let  all  bitterness,  and  wrath,  and  anger,  and  clamor, 
and  evil  speaking,  be  put  away  from  you,  with  all  malice: 

32.  And  be  ye  kind  one  to  another,  tender-hearted,  for- 
giving one  another,  even  as  God  for  Christ's  sake  hath  for- 
given you. 

The  things  named  in  v.  31  will  offend  and  grieve  the  Spirit  of 
God ;  the  qualities  of  character  put  in  v.  32  will  be  congenial  to 
his  presence.  We  can  not  well  doubt  that  they  stood  thus  before 
Paul,  both  alike  suggested  by  their  relation  to  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  God  who  should  find  a  congenial  home  in  every  Christian 
heart.  Hence  a  freshened  interest  should  attach  to  this  exhorta- 
tion in  both  its  parts — the  points  forbidden  and  the  points  en- 
joined. Nor  let  us  ever  forget  that  the  true  light  in  which 
"christians  should  estimate  these  bad  and  those  good  tempers  and 
deeds  is  precisely  this — their  bearing  upon  the  gentle,  mild,  lov- 
ing Spirit  that  would  dwell  within  our  hearts  if  he  could  ! 

"Bitterness"  is  the  opposite  of  love.  It  describes  a  certain 
temper  or  mood  of  mind,  in  contrast  with  kindness  toward  each 
other. "  Wrath  "  is  the  effervescence,  the  boiling  up  and  flow- 
ing over  of  this  bitter  spirit. "Anger"  suggests  a  more  settled 

state  of  malign  feeling,  a  more  permanent  ill-will.  "Clamor" 
will  be  its  outbreaking  expression.  "Evil-speaking"  (Greek, 
blasphemy)  in  this  connection  should  be  speaking  evil  of  men — 
not,  as  often  elsewhere,  speaking  recklessly  or  even  defiantly  of 

God. The  law  of  reason  and  of  God  in  regard  to  saying  any 

thing  ill  of  fellow-men  is — Never  except  iclieii  and  an  the  greater 
good  requires;  never  beyond  what  real  good  demands.  The  ill 
that  others  do  may  sometimes  be  spoken  of;  but  never  in  the 
spirit  of  self-complacency;  never  from  pride,  never  from  ill-will 
toward  the  ill-doing  party,  ]jut  only  to  do  them  good,  or  to  lessen 
the  harm  they  are  doing  to  others,  or  in  some  manifest  way,  to 
subserve  a  greater  good  which  promises  to  overbalance  the  evil 

naturally  incidtMit  to  such  s|)eaking. "With  all  malice" — the 

word  malice  ex^jrcssing  that  deep  selfishness  which  begets  hate, 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  V.  99 

and  is  the  root  element  out  of  which  all  the  previously  named 
bad  qualities  grow. 

Next  we  have  the  opposite  qualities  of  temper  and  spirit — the 

sweet  charities  of  the  Christian  heart. "Be  ye" — more  closely 

translated,  is  become  ye;  study  and  labor    to  be  such — to  mold 

your  own  spirit  into  these  habitudes  of  feeling  and  temper. 

Strive  always  to  be  kind  one  to  another,  compassionate,  forgiving 
toward  yourselves  as  God  manifested  in  Christ  is  toward  you. — • 

"Forgiving  toward  yourselves  "  translates  the  Greek  words. 

"God  for  Christ's  sake  "  is  less  accurate  than  "God??i  Christ" — 
i.  e„  God  manifested  in  Christ — as  He  comes  before  us  revealing 
himself  in  Christ  his  Son.  This  witnesses  wonderfully  to  God's 
forgiving  love,  and  so  should  become  an  inspiring  example  to  us 
unto  like  forgiveness  among  ourselves.  Oh,  might  we  become 
forgiving,  even  as  God  is  in  Christ!  So  ready  to  forgive  the 
penitent — with  love  equal  to  the  forgiving  and  blotting  out  of 
offenses  so  vile,  so  flagrant,  so  abusive  I 


< 


3j^C 


CHAPTER    V. 


Practical  duties  to  be  done,  and  sins  to  be  shunned  fill  out  this 

chapter. Be  imitators  of  God  especially  in  the  point  of  love 

(v.  1,  2);  putting  away  all  forms  of  uncleanness  in  life  and 
abuse  of  the  tongue  (v.  3,  4);  for  men  guilty  of  such  sins  can  not 
enter  heaven  but  must  abide  under  God's  displeasure  (v.  5,  6) ; 
let  them  walk  in  their  new  light,  manifesting  the  fruits  of  the 
Spirit  (v.  7-10) ;  severing  all  fellowship  with  works  of  darkness 
and  shame,  and  walking  in  light  (v.  11-14);  walking  also  in  wis- 
dom according  to  God's  will  (v.  15-17) — not  filled  with  Avine  but 
with  the  Spirit,  and  expressing  their  deep  emotions  in  Christian 
song  and  thanksgiving  (v.  18-20).  The  great  duty  of  submission 
to  each  other  according  to  the  demands  of  their  respective  social 
relations  (v.  21);  submission  of  wives  to  husbands  (v.  22-24); 
love  of  husbands  to  their  wives  enjoined  and  illustrated  (v.  25-33). 

1.  Be  ye  therefore  followers  of  God,  as  dear  children  ; 

2.  And  walk  in  love,  as  Christ  also  hath  loved  us,  and 
hath  given  himself  for  us  an  oflTering  and  a  sacrifice  to  God 
for  a  sweet-smelling  savor. 

Become  ye,  therefore,  imitators  of  God  as  children  beloved — ■ 
i.  e.,  of  him,  and  let  this  love  which  he  bears  to  you  be  an  inspi- 
ration toward  cultivating  his  loving   spirit. The  word   Paul 

used  for  "children"  suggests  children   bi/  bh'th  with,  reference, 

we  may  suppose,  to  the  new  birth  by  the  Spirit. "And  walk 

in  love,"   manifesting  it  in  your   every-day  life,  even  as  Christ 


100  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.   V. 

loved  us,  with  love  so  pure  that  he  gave  himself  to  God  an  offer- 
ing and  sacrifice  in  our  behalf — of  fragrant  odor,  pleasing  to  God. 
"Xouerf"  and  ''gave  "  are  better  as  more  exactly  translating  the 
tense  Paul  used,  than  ''hath  loved"  and  "hath  given,"  since  the 
latter  might  imply  that  it  was  but  is  now  wholly  past.  This 
sacrifice,  being  for  us,  was  vicarious,  and  being  made  to  God,  was 
sacrificial  and  expiatory.  That  it  was  sweet  and  fragrant  to  God 
may  indicate  both  his  delight  in  the  self-sacrificing  spirit  which 
it  manifested,  and  his  satisfaction,  governmentally  considered,  in 
its  results  as  sustaining  the  honor  of  his  law  and  throne. 

3.  But  fornication,  and  all  uncleanness,  or  covetoiisness, 
let  it  not  be  once  named  among  you,  as  becometh  saints; 

4.  Neither  filthiness,  nor  foolish  talking,  nor  jesting, 
which  are  not  convenient :  but  rather  giving  of  thanks. 

We  must  note  Paul's  stern,  unqualified,  oft-repeated  condemna- 
tion of  the  sin  of  fornication — which  apparently  was  accounted 
no  sin  at  Ephesus,  under  the  debasing  influences  of  its  Diana- 
worship. 

Let  all  sexual  impurity  of  whatever  name  or  degree  be  put 
away  from  you  and  not  even  named — not  even  talked  of — much 
less  permitted  and  indulged — for  in  this  thing  entire  purity  in  deed 

and  even  in  speech  befits  the  holy — the  real  saints  of  God. 

That  "  covetousness"  should  be  placed  in  such  connection — a  sin 
so  unlike  the  others  specified,  is  remarkable,  and  perhaps  should 
suggest  its  omnipresent  power  in  corrupt  heathen  society.  It 
stands  in  similar  connection  in  v.  5,  below.  It  is  remarkable 
that  the  two  great  mobs  which  proved  so  serious  to  Paul — that 
at  Philippi  and  that  at  Ephesus — were  due  immediately  and  di- 
rectly to  this  spirit  of  covetousness; — in  the  former  "  when  they 
saw  that  the  hope  of  their  gains  was  gone  "  (Acts  16 :  19) ;  in  the 
latter,  the  war-cry  of  Demetrius  was — "  Ye  know  that  by  this 
craft  we  have  our  wealth  "  (Acts  19:  23-27.)  This  may  explain 
why  Paul  had  so  keen  a  sense  of  the  power  of  covetousness,  and 
why  no  enumeration  of  the  great  forces  hostile  to  Christianity 

could  be  complete  without  it. As  to  the  precise  idea  of  the 

word  "  filthiness,"  the  question  is  whether  of  deed  or  of  word. 
The  following  context  favors  the  latter;  perhaps,  the  foregoing 
context,  the  former.  The  fundamental  idea  is  of  something  in- 
decorous,  foul. Of  "  foolish  talking,"   Trench   says    that  "to 

the  sense  of  idle,  aimless,  senseless  talk,  must  be  added  that  sin 
and  vanity  of  spirit  which  the  talk  of  fools  is  certain  to  betray." 

The  Greek  word  for  "jesting"  by  its  etymology  suggests  a 

happy  turn  of  thought,  with  agreeable  associations.  But  usage 
gives  it  the  l)ad  sense,  suggestive  of  foolish  things,  and  here  appa- 
rently of  things  foul,  unbecoming — thoughts  at  once  frivolous  and 
indecent.  Paul  says  of  such  jesting  and  foolish  talking — "  Avhich 
are  not  convenient  :^^  but  certainly  he  did  not  mean  that  such 
talk  does  not  come  flippantly  enough  to  the  tongue  of  tlie  foul- 
minded  ; — that  to  such  it  is  not  "  convenient,"  but  hard,  lubori- 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.    V.  101 

0U8.  This  is  not  at  all  his  meaning.  He  only  declares  it  to  be 
unsuiiable,  unbecoming,  out  of  character  for  Christians,  or  indeed 
for  any  pure-minded  people.  "  Giving  of  thanks,"  so  well  befit- 
ting every  human  tongue,  is  infinitely  better. 

5.  For  this  ye  know,  that  no  whoremonger,  nor  unclean 
person,  nor  covetous  man,  who  is  an  idolater,  hath  any  in- 
heritance in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and  of  God. 

6.  Let  no  man  deceive  you  with  vain  words :  for  because 
of  these  things  cometh  the  wrath  of  God  upon  the  children 
of  disobedience. 

7.  Be  not  ye  therefore  partakers  with  them. 

The  best  authorities  make  this  verb  "  know"  (first  clause) — not 
indicative  but  imperative — not  stating  that  they  do  know,  but  ex- 
horting them  to  know  and  to  take  it  deeply  to  their  heart.  Know 
ye  this  as  a  great  fact,  too  momentous  to  be  ignored  or  to  be  at 
all  out  of  mind.  The  Greek  idiom  puts  this  fact  strongly — 
thus : — As  to  every  fornicator,  or  unclean  one  or  covetous — not  a 
man  of  them  can  have  inheritance  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and 
of  God.     The  covetous  man  is  declared  to  be  in  heart  an  idolater. 

His  heart  goes  to  his  money  as  the  idolater's  to  his  idol. This 

kingdom  belongs  to  both  Christ  and  God;  is  spoken  of  inter- 
changeably— sometimes  as  the  kingdom  of  Christ;  again,  as  the 
kingdom  of  God.  The  passage  can  not  therefore  be  taken  as  a 
direct  proof-text  afiirming  that  Christ  is  God.  It  bears  on  the 
divine  nature  of  Christ  by  implying  that  he  must  be  worthy — 
even  as  God  himself  is,  of  the  supreme  control  of  the  universe. 
If  the  kingdom  belongs  in   a  similar   sense  to  each,  then  they 

must  be  essentially  equal  as  to  divine  nature. "  Let  no  man 

deceive  you  with  false  words,"  into  the  denial  or  disbelief  of 
what  I  have  here  said  (as  to  the  doom  of  the  wicked)  for  it  is 
undeniably  true  that  because  of  such  sins,  the  wrath  of  God  is 
upon  all  the  disobedient.  This  doctrine  is  affirmed  most  emphat- 
ically (Gal.  5:  10-21  and  Rev.  21:  8,  27  and  22:  15).  Expose 
not  yourselves  to  God's  wrath  by  indulging  in  sins  which  must 
surely  bring  it  down  upon  you. 

8.  For  ye  were  sometime  darkness,  but  now  are  ye  light  in 
the  Lord :  walk  as  children  of  light ; 

9.  (For  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  in  all  goodness  and  right- 
eousness and  truth;) 

10.  Proving  what  is  acceptable  unto  the  Lord. 

In  your  Pagan  life  ye  were  dark-minded ;  now  ye  are  enlight- 
ened, being  "  f/j,  the  Lord" — which  implies  being  taught  of  him 
and  obeying  him  as  your  Lord.  Therefore  walk  as  sons  of  light, 
which  is  explained  (v.  9)  by  reference  to  the  "  fruits  of  the  Spirit." 
This  is  legitimate  because  the  sons  of  light  are  taught  and  led 
by  the  Spirit.     These  fruits  of  the  Spirit   include  whatever    is 


102  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.   V. 

good,  just,  true. Do  all  this,   "proving" — i.  e.,  evincing  and 

verifying  in  your  own  experience  all  that  is  well  pleasing  to 
the  Lord.  Develop  it  in  your  life.  This  w^ill  be  walking  as  sons 
of  light,  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 

Throughout  this  entire  passage  (v.  8-14),  the  word  "light"  is 
transferred  from  the  material  to  the  spiritual  world,  and  with 
^rcat  pertinence  and  beauty.  The  light  of  the  sun — free,  pure, 
joyous ;  fit  helper  to  all  useful  labor ;  welcome  revealer  of  beauty  ; 
— who  does  not  love  it  ?  Who  can  not  see  how  aptly  it  repre- 
sents the  pure,  genial,  loving  spirit  which  Christ  breathes  into 
new-born  souls,  and  the  sweetness  and  purity  of  the  new  life 
which  is  according  to  godliness? 

11.  And  have  no  fellowship  with  the  unfruitful  works  of 
darkness,  but  rather  reprove  them. 

12.  For  it  is  a  shame  even  to  speak  of  those  things  which 
are  done  of  them  in  secret. 

Have  nothing  in  common  with  those  works  or  with  those  who 
do  them.  Never  cast  in  your  lot  with  them ;  seek  no  share 
in  their  so-called  pleasures;  keep  aloof  from  their  society;  stand 
af^ir  from  their  final  doom.  Their  works  are  altogether  unfruit- 
ful of  good.  Rebuke  them,  not  only  by  your  pure  life  but  with 
words  firm  and  outspoken.  The  Greek  term  seems  to  contem- 
plate spoken  words.  Compare  1  Cor.  14:  24,  2  Tim.  4:  2,  Tit. 
1 :  9,  13  and  2 :  15. Their  secret  vices  it  would  be  shame- 
ful even  to  speak  of; — how  much  more  shameful  is  the  doing! 

13.  But  all  things  that  are  reproved  are  made  manifest 
by  the  light :  for  -whatsoever  doth  make  manifest  is  light. 

14.  Wherefore  he  saith,  Awake  thou  that  sleepest,  and 
arise  from  the  dead,  and  Christ  shall  give  thee  light. 

As  to  the  last  clause  of  v.  13,  "Whatever  doth  make  manifest 
is  light'' — if  Paul's  Greek  would  justify  this  English,  it  would 
be  plain  enough;  indeed  almost  too  plain  to  need  affirmation, 
liut  the  Greek  word  translated — "  doth  make  manifest  "  is  not 
transitive  but  passive,  and  therefore  must  mean  what  is  made 
manifest.  What  Paul  said  therefore  is  this :  All  things  (sins), 
rebuked,  are  made  manifest  by  the  light  thus  thrown  upon  them  ; 
and  whatever  is  thus  made  manifest  (set  forth  in  its  true  moral 
nature)  comes  to  have  itself  the  nature  of  light  and  thus  serves 
to  expose  the  real  nature  of  other  sin.  Every  sin,  properly  re- 
buked and  shown  to  be  what  it  is,  becomes  itself  a  witness  against 
other  sin — much  the  same  as  more  light  would  be.     Rebuked  sin 

becomes  itself  a  sort  of  light  to  rebuke  yet  other  sin. This  is 

good  sense,  and  should  encourage  Christians  in  rebuking  sin — 
which  was  Paul's  object  here. 

The  Scripture  referred  to  in  v.  14  (snpposably  Isa.  00:  1)  sus- 
tains this  interpretation:  "Arise;  shine;  for  thy  light  is  come, 
and  the  glory  ot  the  Lord  is  risen  upon  thee."     Let  Zion  arise 


EPHESIANS — CHAP.  V.  103 

and  make  that  light  shine  by  reflection  from  herself  which  God's 
glorious  Sun  of  righteousness  is  pouring  upon  her.  Let  her  be 
as  the  moon  in  the  point  of  reflecting  the  sunlight, 

15.  See  then  that  ye  walk  circumspectly,  not  as  fools,  but 
as  wise, 

16.  Redeeming  the  time,  because  the  days  are  evil. 

17.  Wherefore  be  ye  not  unwise,  but  understanding  what 
the  will  of  the  Lord  is. 

Let  your  life  be  ordered  with  care,  precision  ;  and  not  left  to 
run  at  random  as  by  its  own  thoughtless  will.  Have  definite  ob- 
jects always  in  view,  and  never  be  regardless  of  your  responsi- 
bilities.— So  wise  men  do,  but  not  so  fools.  Redeeming  choice 
opportunities  (the  favoring  times) — buying  them  up  as  the  trades- 
man looks  for  good  bargains ;  and  the  more  so  because  the  times 
are  bad;  iniquity  abounds.  For  this  reason  should  ye  be  the 
more  careful  to  learn  the  will  of  the  Lord,  and  let  it  govern  your 
life. 

18.  And  be  not  drunk  with  wine,  wherein  is  excess ;  but 
be  filled  with  the  Spirit ; 

19.  Speaking  to  yourselves  in  psalms  and  hymns  and  spir- 
itual songs,  singing  and  making  melody  in  your  heart  to  the 
Lord ; 

20.  Giving  thanks  always  for  all  things  unto  God  and  the 
Father  in  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ; 

21.  Submitting  yourselves  one  to  another  in  the  fear  of 
God. 

Here  are  various  admonitions  and  duties;  e.  ^.,  against  becom- 
ing drunk  with  v^ine—Jilled  with  it;  for  this  is  not  precisely 
"excess,"  but  dissoluteness.  It  robs  a  man  of  all  proper  self- 
control  ;  takes  away  his  reason ;  makes  him  a  sot,  a  beast.  This 
should  be  reason  enough  why  a  real  man  should  never  fill  him- 
self with  wine.  But  be  ye  filled  with  a  spirit  far  other  than  that 
of  wine,  even  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  whose  inspirations  are  alto- 
gether pure,  wholesome,  precious,  blessed.  The  contrast  between 
filled  with  wine  and  being  filled  with  the  Spirit  is  immense. 
Paul  had  marvelous  skill  in  putting  his  points  in  their  utmost 
strength. 

Being  filled  with  the  Spirit  is  here  supposed  to  produce  a  cer- 
tain elation,  exaltation  of  soul,  somewhat  analogous  to  the  excite- 
ment of  wine,  yet  wholly  pure  and  noble.  This  may  properly 
find  expression  and  manifest  itself  in  reciting  among  yourselves 
psalms,  hymns,  spiritual  songs;  in  singing  and  making  heart- 
melody  to  the  Lord;  in  giving  thanks  to  God  even  the  Father  in 
the  name  of  Christ,  and  in  submitting  one  to  another  in  his  fear. 
This  last  (v.  21)  stands  grammatically  in  the  same  relation  as  the 
other  preceding  points,  although  it  seems  by  no  means  analogous. 

"Speaking  to  one  another  in  Psalms,"  seems  to  imply  that  such 


104  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  V. 

reading  or  reciting  was  a  customary  form  of  instruction  in  social 
worship,  as  is  suggested  also  in  1  Cor.  14:  26:  "When  ye  come 
together,  every  one  has  a  psalm,"  etc.  Whoever  "had  a  word  of 
exhortation"  was  invited  to  "say  on,"  and  it  might  be  in  the 
sacred  words  of  Scripture,  or  in  words  of  sacred  song.  The  lines 
of  distinction,  if  any,  between  "psalms,"  "hymns,"  and  "spiritual 
songs"  are  not  fully  defined  on  any  reliable  authority. — The  word 
for  "making  melody"  means  primarily  striking  the  lyre,  but.  nat- 
urally came  to  have  the  more  general  sense  of  making  music; 
here,  the  melody  of  real  heart-worship — true  adoration  and  praise. 
Song  is  peculiarly  appropriate  to  thanksgiving,  for  which  we  have 
occasion  all  our  days. 

Mutual  submission  to  each  other,  according  to  our  various  rela- 
tions, opens  here  a  new  subject,  presenting  new  duties. 

22.  Wives,  submit  yourselves  unto  your  own  husbands,  as 
unto  the  Lord. 

23.  For  the  husband  is  the  head  of  the  wife,  even  as  Christ 
is  the  head  of  the  church ;  and  he  is  the  Savior  of  the  body. 

24.  Therefore  as  the  church  is  subject  unto  Christ,  so  let 
the  wives  be  to  their  own  husbands  in  every  thing. 

Fortunately  for  the  interests  of  human  society,  the  important 
points  in  this  scriptural  doctrine  as  to  the  relation  of  husband 
and  wife  are  made  very  clear  and  are  illustrated  admirably. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  doctrine  is  the  subjection  of 
wives  to  husbands  as  the  higher  authority — a  subjection  under 
which  all  is  right  if  wives  (as  Peter  has  it,  1  Eps.  3:  6)  "do 
well,  and  are  not  afraid  with  any  amazement."  The  duties  in- 
volved in  this  subjection  they  are  to  perform  as  unto  the  Lord, 
under  the  conviction  that  the  Lord  himself  requires  this,  and  will 
accept  it  as  rendered  to  himself  The  husband  is  declared  to  be 
the  head  of  the  wife  even  as  Christ  is  the  head  of  the  church, 
and  his  headship  is  to  be  exercised  evermore  and  altogether  in 
love,  even  as  Christ  also  has  loved  the  church  and  sustains  hia 
supremacy  in  no  other  spirit  than  that  of  pure  and  perfect  love. 

This  illustration  is  in  every  point  of  view  admira])le.  When 
once  we  fully  appreciate  the  love  of  Christ  for  his  people — the 
very  love  (as  the  Scriptures  often  present  it)  of  the  bridegroom 
for  his  bride — and  thoroughly  accept  this  as  the  model  of  the 
husband's  love  for  his  wife  and  his  guide  and  regulator  in  the 
exercise  of  authority  and  headship  over  her,  their  mutual  rela- 
tions will  be  adjusted  perfectly  and  the  currents  of  domestic  life 
will  run  smoothly,  to  their  own  mutual  happiness,  and  to  the  well 
ordering  of  their  household. 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  the  precise  sense  and  bearing  of  the 
words  (v.  23):  "Himself  is  Savior  of  the  body.  '  it  would  seem 
that  here  the  word  "body"  should  be  the  human  body  proper  and 
n<jt  Clirist's  spiritual  body,  the  church.  If  so,  the  reference 
may  1)C  to  Christ's  Having  not  the  soul  only  but  the  body  also 
from  hell  (Mat.  10:  28),  including  the  resurrection  of  the  body 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  V.  105 

unto  future  immortality.  In  these  respects  Christ  is  more  to  his 
people  than  the  husband  can  be  to  the  wife.  Yet  these  higher 
prerogatives  and  greater  blessings  fall  under  the  same  law,  ad- 
ministered evermore  with  ineffable  love.  As  subjection  to  such  a 
head  should  be  rendered  cheerfully,  gratefully,  by  all  Christ's 
people,  so  should  wives  accept  their  responsibilities  toward  their 
husbands  in  all  things. 

25.  Husbands,  love  your  wives  even  as  Christ  also  loved 
the  church,  and  gave  himself  for  it ; 

26.  That  he  might  sanctify  and  cleanse  it  with  the  wash- 
ing of  water  by  the  word, 

27.  That  he  might  present  it  to  himself  a  glorious  church, 
not  having  spot,  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing ;  but  that  it 
should  be  holy  and  without  blemish. 

The  love  of  Jesus  for  his  church,  at  once  the  motive  and  the 
measure  and  model  of  the  husband's  love  for  his  wife,  is  the  pre- 
cious doctrine  of  our  Scripture.  The  briefest  allusion  to  Christ's 
love  for  his  church,  interpreting  and  enforcing  this  law  upon  the 
husband,  should  have  been  all-powerful;  how  much  more  this 
wonderful  exposition  of  that  love !  Study  it  with  care.  What 
has  it  wrought?  What  objects  has  it  sought  and  committed  itself 
to  secure  ? — In  the  exercise  of  that  love  for  his  church,  Christ 
gave  himself  for  her  that  he  might  set  her  apart  for  himself  in 
holiness,  having  cleansed  her  with  the  washing  of  water  by  (in 
connection  with)  the  word,  that  he  might  present  her  to  himself 
all  glorious  "within"  (Psalm  45:  13),  having  no  spot,  no  wrinkle, 
nor  any  such  thing,  but  that  she  might  be  holy  and  unblemished. 
So  has  his  love  moved  him  to  prepare  his  bride  for  the  purity  and 
blessedness  of  his  heavenly  home.  In  every  stage  of  progress  in 
this  cleansing  and  adornment,  how  profound  has  been  his  interest; 
how  wise  his  agencies ;  how  full  of  love  and  sympathy  his  watch- 
ful heart;  and  how  sublime  will  be  his  joy  in  the  final  consum- 
mation— a  glorious  church,  of  stainless  purity,  of  ineffable  beauty 
and  glory — all  due  to  the  love  of  her  great  Kedeemer! — Let  us 
not  omit  to  note  the  ravishing  view  of  this  adornment  of  his  bride 
which  the  revelator  John  has  put  (Rev.  19 :  7,  8)  :  "  The  mar- 
riage of  the  Lamb  has  come,  and  his  wife  hath  made  herself 
ready ;  and  to  her  was  granted  that  she  should  be  arrayed  in  fine 
linen,  clean  and  white ;  for  the  fine  linen  is  the  righteousness  of 
saints." 

"The  washing  of  water"  (v.  26)  is  probably  an  allusion  to  bap- 
tism in  its  symbolic  significance  of  spiritual  purification  (as  in 
Ezekiel  36:  25-27) :  "  Then  will  I  sprinkle  clean  water  upon  you 
and  ye  shall  be  clean,"  etc. — The  agency  of  "the  word"  in  this 
moral  cleansing  is  entirely  in  place,  Christ  himself  having  taught 
this  plainly:  "Sanctify  them  through  thy  truth;  thy  word  is 
truth'^  (John  17:  17).  "When  he,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  shall 
come,  he  will  guide  you  into  all  truth.  He  shall  receive  of  mine 
and  shall  show  it  unto  you"  (John  16  :  13,  14). 


106  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  V. 

28.  So  oiiglit  men  to  love  their  wives  as  their  own  bodies. 
He  that  loveth  his  wife  loveth  himself. 

29.  For  no  man  ever  yet  hated  his  own  flesh ;  but 
nourisheth  and  cherisheth  it,  even  as  the  Lord  the  church: 

30.  For  we  are  members  of  his  body,  of  his  flesh,  and  of 
his  bones. 

31.  For  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and 
mother,  and  shall  be  joined  unto  his  wife,  and  they  two  shall 
be  one  flesh. 

Here  is  yet  another  measure  for  this  required  love,  combining 
in  itself  a  motive  as  well:  "  So  ought  husbands  to  love  their  own 
wives  even  as  (they  do)  their  own  bodies."  The  true  text  re- 
quires us  to  read  "■their  own'"  before  "wives"  as  well  as  before 
"bodies,"  the  implication  being  that  the  wife  is  his  own  as  his 
body  is  his  own;  entitled  therefore  to  the  same  tender  care  and 
the  same  manifestations  of  love.  Indeed  this  is  the  precise  point 
of  the  passage.  His  wife  is  a  second  self  So  much  the  mar- 
riage institution  assumes  and  enjoins. There  is  perhaps  a  tacit 

allusion  to  the  royal  law — "Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  this 
being  put  in  terms  analogous  to  that.  But  the  original  creation 
of  Eve  and  the  institution  of  marriage  in  Eden,  mainly  lead  the 

thought  here As  no  man  in   his  senses    ever   hates   his  own 

flesh,  but  ahvays  feeds,  nurtures,  and  protects  it,  even  as  Christ 
(the  better  text)  does  his  church;  so  should  the  husband  never 
hate  or  abuse,  but  only  love  and  cherish,  his  wife. 

So  Christ  loves  and  tenderly  cares  for  his  church,  "  for  we  are 

members  of  his  body." In  this  v.  30  the   textual  authorities 

differ,  some  giving  only  the  first  clause,  and  omitting  "  of  his 
flesh  and  of  his  bones.  '  If  this  be  the  whole  of  the  text,  we 
may  assume  an  allusion  to  Paul's  figure  of  the  church  as  the 
mystical  body  of  Christ. 

13ut  if  we  include  in  the  text,  "  of  his  flesh  and  of  his  bones," 
we  may  suppose  an  allusion  to  Gen.  2:  23:  "  This  is  now  bone 
of  my  bones  and  flesh  of  my  flesh."  It  favors  this  latter  allusion 
that  Paul  proceeds  to  quote  from  that  context  (Gen.  2 :  24) ; 
while  it  bears  against  it  that  v.  30  refers  not  to  the  relation  of 
husband  and  wile,  but  to  that  between  Christ  and  his  church. 

The  last  clause  of  v.  30,  Tischendorf  (with  S.  V.  A.)  rejects; 
while  Howson,  EUicott,  and  others  accept. 

32.  This  is  a  great  mystery;  but  I  speak  concerning 
Christ  and  the  church. 

33.  Nevertheless,  let  every  one  of  you  in  particular  so 
love  his  wife  even  as  himself;  and  the  wife  see  that  she  rev- 
erence her  husband. 

The  question —  What  is  "  a  great  mystery  ?  "  has  been  answered 
variously.  That  which  seems  to  me  the  most  obvious  and  on  the 
whole  the  most  probable,  I  would  put  thus:  Paul's  word  ''this" 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.    VI.  107 

refers  to  the  very  point  last  spoken  of— the  mysterious,  almost 
miraculous  creation  of  woman,  and  the  consequent  wonderful 
union  of  husband  and  wife.  Here  Paul  somewhat  abruptly  cuts 
short  this  discussion,  only  adding — But  I  am  speaking  specially 
in  respect  to  Christ  and  the  church,  and  I  wish  you  to  think  of 
this  as  the  main  thing  now  under  consideration — the  mystery  of 
this  being  even  greater  than  that  which  relates  to  woman  and 
marriage. 

Then  to  close  this  theme,  summing  up  its  great  practical  points, 
he  adds — But  as  to  yourselves  individually  and  severally — Let 
every  one  so  love  his  own  wife  as  himself;  and  let  the  wife  have 
a  care  that  she  reverence  her  husband.  These  are  the  staple 
points  in  their  relative  duties  to  each  other. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

The  relative  duties  of  children  to  parents  (v.  1-3);  of  fathers 
to  children  (v.  4) ;  of  servants  to  their  masters  (v.  5-8) ;  and  of 
masters  (v.  9)  :  a  general  exhortation  to  put  on  the  whole 
panoply  of  God,  all  the  Christian  armor,  to  withstand  the  devil 
and  all  his  allied  spirits  of  darkness  (v.  10-12) ;  this  armor 
briefly  specified — the  girdle  of  truth;  the  breastplate  of  righteous- 
ness; for  the  feet  the  sandals  of  the  gospel  of  peace  (v.  13-15); 
over  all  the  shield  of  faith;  the  helmet  of  salvation;  the  sword 
of  the  Spirit  (v.  16,  17);  persevering  with  all  prayer  in  the 
Spirit  in  behalf  of  all  the  saints  and  of  me  (Paul)  especially 
(v.  18-20).  He  will  send  Tychicus  to  give  them  all  the  informa- 
tion as  to  himself  they  might  desire  (v.  21,  22) ;  his  closing  ben- 
ediction (v.  23,  24). 

1.  Children,  obey  your  parents  in  the  Lord :  for  this  is 
right. 

2.  Honor  thy  father  and  mother;  which  is  the  first  com- 
mandment with  promise; 

3.  That  it  may  be  well  with  thee,  and  thou  mayest  live 
long  on  the  earth. 

The  Greek  word  for  "children"^  suggests  offspring,  and  also, 
the  tenderly  beloved  ones. "In  the  Lord"  should  be  con- 
nected with  children,  not  with  parents — the  duty  not  being  b^ 
any  means  restricted  to  those  parents  who  are  "  in  the  Lord." 
Coming  in  its  sense  after  children  it  requires  them  to  obey  their 


108  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.   VI. 

parents  as  a  duty  enjoined  by  the  Lord — and  a  duty  for  all  who 

would  be  in  the  Lord  in  the  sense  of  having  his  fiivor. Of 

course  to  obey  parents  as  a  duty  due  to  the  Lord  would  forbid 
obedience  to  parental  commands  which  are  positively  wicked,  for 
the  Lord's  authority  is  higher  than  theirs,  and  God  must  so  re- 
gard it.  But  Paul  would  not  suggest  that  such  requirements  are 
to  be  expected,  and  therefore  refrains  from  making  this  ex- 
ception. Indeed,  he  wrote  to  the  Colossians  (3:  30): — "Children, 
obey  your  parents   in  all  things;    for  this  is  well  pleasing  unto 

the  Lord." Here,  "for  this  is  right'' — just;  in  harmony  with 

the  principles  of  intrinsic  righteousness. 

"  Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother"  with  all  filial  respect  and 
reverence ;  not  the  fathers  only  but  the  mothers  also ; — for 
Christianity  has  a  far  higher  and  nobler  ideal  of  woman's  social 
position  than  heathenism  ever  had. This  is  the  first  command- 
ment in  their  order  in  the  decalogue,  which  has  a  promise  of 
earthly  good  appended.  So  reads  the  fifth  commandment: 
"  Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother,  that  thy  days  may  be  long 
upon  the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee."  Apparently, 
Paul's  thought  was  also  upon  Deut.  5:  16 — "That  thy  days  may 
be  prolonged,  and  that  it  may  go  well  with  thee  in  the  land  which 
the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee."  Yet  he  wisely  omits  the 
allusion  to  the  land  of  Canaan — this  part  of  the  promise,  though 
pertinent  in  Moses'  time,  had  no  pertinence  to  Gentiles  in  Paul's 
day. 

4.  And,  ye  fathers,  provoke  not  your  children  to  wrath : 
but  bring  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the 
Lord. 

It  is  sadly  deep  in  human  nature  to  abuse  power.  Against 
such  abuse  Paul  assumes  that  fathers  (even  more  than  mothers) 
need  to  be  admonished  here  against  provoking  their  children 
to  wrath — resentment — the  feeling  that  they  are  abused  and 
wronged.  To  the  Colossians  he  puts  this  point  thus  (3:  21): 
"Provoke  not  your  children  to  anger  lest  they  be  discouraged" 

— lose  heart  and  hope. Moreover,  Paul  wisely  suggests  duties 

to  be  done,  as  well  as  abuses  to  be  shunned.  Of  the  words, 
"  nurture  and  admonition,"  the  former  has  the  broader  range,  in- 
cluding all  that  comes  under  the  head  of  training — the  influence 
of  rewards  and  punishments ;  example,  practice ;  while  the  latter 
rather  suggests  instruction  by  word — things  put  into  the  mind. 
IJoth  are  to  be  "of  the  Lord'  in  the  sense  of  being  such  as  he 
can  approve. 

5.  Servants,  be  obedient  to  them  that  are  your  masters 
accordinp^  to  the  flesh,  with  fear  and  trembling,  in  singleness 
of  your  heart,  as  unto  Christ ; 

6.  Not  with  eye-service,  as  men-pleasers ;  but  as  the  serv- 
ants of  Christ,  doing  the  will  of  God  from  the  heart ; 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.    VI.  109 

7.  With  good  will  doing  service,  as  to  the  Lord,  and  not 
to  men : 

8.  Knowing  that  whatsoever  good  thing  any  man  doeth, 
the  same  shall  he  receive  of  the  Lord,  whether  he  be  bond 
or  free. 

In  this  extended  passage  beginning  5 :  21  and  ending  6 :  9 — 
which  might  fitly  have  been  made  one  chapter  on  submission  one 
to  another  in  the  fear  of  God,  it  was  appropriate  that  in  each 
special  relation  Paul  should  speak  first  of  the  inferior  party,  ex- 
plaining their  duties  of  submission ;  and  next  of  the  party  in 
authority,  with  cautions  against  abusing  their  power.  Thus  he 
addresses  first  wives;  then  husbands;  first  children;  then  parents; 
first  servants ;  then  their  masters. 

"Ye  masters  according  to  the  flesh" — for  he  speaks  not  of 
their  one  Heavenly  Master,  but  of  their  earthly. 

Paul  says,  "  Be  obedient  icithfear  and  trembling  ;"  yet  we  may 
be  in  danger  of  putting  more  into  these  words  than  Paul  himself 
was  vrbnt  to  do.  It  is  well  to  interpret  them  by  his  own  frequent 
usage;  — e.  g.,  to  the  Corinthians  (1  Eps.  2:  3) — "I  was  with 
you  in  weakness  and  in  fear  and  in  much  trembling  " — yet  this 
was  not  the  spirit  of  a  crouching  slave,  quaking  in  fear  of  the  lash. 
He  even  uses  the  same  words  of  the  Corinthians  (2  Eps.  7:  15) 
as  receiving  Titus  "with  fear  and  trembling" — which  moved  the 
inward  affection  of  that  good  man,  and  therefore,  we  must  pre- 
sume, was  not  a  servile  or  cringing  "  fear  and  trembling."  And 
yet  again;  Paul  exhorts  that  ye  "work  out  v^our  own  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling"  (Phil.  2:  12).  These  cases  of  Paul's 
usage  should  modify  the  otherwise  stern  aspects  of  this  in- 
junction. 

Whatever  Paul's  view  might  be  of  the  intrinsic  Tightness  of  this 
form  of  slavery,  it  is  plain  that  he  counseled  submission  rather 
than  forcible  resistance ;  and  moreover,  submission  as  being  un- 
der the  circumstances  a  duty  due  to  Christ,  and  honorable  to  their 
Christian  profession.  This  does  not  necessarily  imply  that  Paul 
approved  of  the  system,  or  held  that  God  approved  it.  But  to 
servants  he  would  say:  Since  ye  are  in  this  subject  relation,  un- 
der a  power  ye  can  not  wisely  resist,  perform  its  service  as  unto 
God  and  ye  shall  not  lose  your  reward.  Seek  supremely  to  please 
God,  doing  all  the  good  ye  can,  and  He  will  requite  your  service 
as  done  to  himself 

9.  And,  ye  masters,  do  the  same  things  unto  them,  for- 
bearing threatening :  knowing  that  your  Master  also  is  in 
heaven ;  neither  is  there  respect  of  persons  with  him. 

Ye  masters  also  have  duties  and  responsibilities,  little  as  ye 
may  think  of  them  and  lay  them'  to  heart. — "  Forbearing  to 
threaten" — which  means  much  more  than  forbearing  to puriish — 
more  than  refraining  from  the  lash — the  torture.     If  Paul  thought 


110  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  VI. 

that  even  threatening  was  in  their  case  wrong,  how  much  more 
wrong  must  be  the  infliction  of  what  passionate  masters  might 

threaten  ! Moreover,  Paul  said — Desist  from  the  threatening — 

that  very  kind  and  degree  of  it  to  which  ye  are  so  often  tempted, 
and  perhaps,  so  much  accustomed. The  best  textual  authori- 
ties have  it — "  KnoAving  that  their  and  your  master  (both  theirs 
and  yours)  is  in  heaven,  and  has  not  the  least  partiality  for  mas- 
ter more  than  for  slave." — Such  suggestions  must  always  be  whole- 
some, even  as  they  are  forever  ^'«s^,  and  in  harmony  with  the  rule 
of  the  all-righteous  and  all-merciful  God. 

10.  Finally,  my  brethren,  be  strong  in  the  Lord,  and  in 
the  power  of  his  might. 

11.  Put  on  the  whole  armor  of  God,  that  ye  may  be  able 
to  stand  against  the  wiles  of  the  devil. 

12.  For  we  wrestle  not  against  flesh  and  blood,  but  against 
principalities,  against  powers,  against  the  rulers  of  the  dark- 
ness of  this  world,  against  spiritual  wickedness  in  high  jplaces. 

This  passage  conceives  of  the  Ephesian  church  as  thoroughly 
"militant" — in  a  state  of  warfare,  having  enemies  many  and 
mighty,  and  therefore  needing  to  be  equipped  thoroughly  for  either 
attack  or  defense,  with  armor  both  offensive  and  defensive.  No- 
ticeably, the  style  of  these  weapons  is  Roman  rather  than  Jewish, 
as  it  should  be,  according  to  the  then  existing  tactics  of  war. — 
Moreover,  it  need  not  surprise  us  that  Paul  should  think  of  his 
Ephesian  church  as  in  for  bloody  fight,  for  had  he  not  been  there 
himself?  Had  he  not  seen  and  felt  the  terrible  reality  ?  It  seemed 
to  him  like  fighting  with  beasts  on  the  terrible  arena  of  the  Ro- 
man amphitheater  (1  Cor.  15:  32).  He  remembered  that  roaring, 
surging  mob  where  for  two  mortal  hours  the  gathered  thousands 
rent  the  air  with  their  frenzied  cry — "Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephe- 
sians"  (Acts  19:  34),  and  himself,  bold  man  as  he  was,  withdrew 
from  the  city  rather  than  breast  this  wild  storm  of  human  (or  Sa- 
tanic) madness.  The  elements  for  another  such  mob  were  still 
there  Paul  very  well  knew,  at  the  time  of  this  writing;  and  who 
could  tell  how  soon  they  might  gather  into  another  storm  ?  There- 
fore, this  letter  being  near  its  close,  this  militant  counsel  must  not 
be  omitted.     Any  one  can  see  its  special  adaptation  to  Ephesus. 

"  Be  strong  " — should  rather  have  been  Be  ye  strenciihened — 
made  strong — the  verb  being  in  the  passive  voice.  See  that  ye 
gather  new  strength  in  the  Lord  as  the  only  source  and  fountain 

of  Christian  power. A  "  whole  armor  " — panoply — including 

protection  for  every  part  of  the  person  and  all  the  weapons  of 
assault  known  to  the  military  science  of  the  age — all  these  pro- 
vided of  God  for  your  use — put  ye  on. "  That  ye  may  be  able 

to  stand;''  not  merely  in  an  upright  posture,  for  "stand  '  is  here 
a  military  term,  and  means  much  more  than  being  erect  as  opposed 
to  sitting.  To  >itand  in  the  war  sense,  is  to  hold  your  ground, 
firm,  undaunted,  unyielding. 


EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  VI.  Ill 

Observe,  moreover;  it  is  against  no  merely  human  foe,  but 
against  the  devil ;  and  the  devil  not  always  in  open,  honorable 
warfare;  but  in   all   his  "wiles;"  for  herein  will   often   lie  his 

great  strength  and  your  chief  danger. "  For  we  wrestle  not 

against  jiesh  and  blood" — mere  mortal  men,  and  men  consid- 
ered as  frail,  and  indeed  feeble,  compared  with  spiritual  foes 
whose  energy  never  wanes.  "Principalities  and  powers" — the 
same  words  which  Paul  used  above  (1:  21)  for  holy  beings  of 
most  exalted  rank — represent  here  fallen  angels  of  equally  great 
power,  but  of  malign  spirit — associates  of  Satan  in  his  antagon- 
ism against  God  and  God's  people.  They  are  said  here  to  be 
"the  world-rulers  of  this  darkness" — having  control  of  the 
elements  of  darkness  and  sin.  The  next  clause  might  be  trans- 
lated— against  the  spiritualities  ofivickedness;  but  the  term  "  spir- 
itualities" probably  means,  in  the  concrete,  hosts  of  spiritual  be- 
ings; vast  bodies  of  fallen  spirits.  "In  the  heavenly  regions," 
where  Paul  locates  their  present  abode  (2:  2) — a  realm  of  space 
below  the  real  heaven,  yet  above  the  earth. The  word  "wres- 
tle "  where  we  should  expect  a  military  term,  is  specially  sug- 
gestive, looking  to  personal  conflict — a  hand  to  hand  contest- 
man  against  man — in  Avhich  every  combatant  must  test  his  powers 
to  their  utmost.     Such  is  the  Christian  warfare. 

13.  Wherefore  take  unto  you  the  whole  armor  of  God, 
that  ye  may  be  able  to  Avithstand  in  the  evil  day,  and  hav- 
ing done  all,  to  stand. 

14.  Stand  therefore,  having  your  loins  girt  about  with 
truth,  and  having  on  the  breastplate  of  righteousness ; 

15.  And  your  feet  shod  with  the  preparation  of  the  gospel 
of  peace; 

16.  AJbove  all,  taking  the  shield  of  faith,  wherewith  ye 
shall  be  able  to  quench  all  the  fiery  darts  of  the  wicked. 

17.  And  take  the  helmet  of  salvation,  and  the  sword  of 
the  Spirit,  which  is  the  w^ord  of  God : 

"In  the  evil  day" — viz.,  that  of  conflict,  struggle.  "Stand- 
ing "  is,  of  course,  in  the  strong  military  sense. 

In  making  out  an  exposition  of  this  Christian  armor,  it  is  bet- 
ter to  be  content  with  general  analogies  on  a  basis  of  common  sense 
than  to  vseek  very  minute  applications  under  the  guide  of  mere 
fancy.  This  general  sense  is  thoroughly  instructive  ;  but  pushed 
into  the  realms  of  fancy  it  yields  results  amusing  perhaps,  yet 
little  useful. 

The  girdle  about  the  loins  gathered  and  held  closely  the  loose 
oriental  dress,  and  thus  left  the  limbs  free  for  action.  To  this 
service  Paul  assigns  "truth" — not  in  the  sense  of  truthfulness  in 
character,  good  though  this  is;  but  in  the  sense  of  gospel  truth 
as  opposed  to  error  ;  the  knowledge  of  its  great  facts  and  princi- 
ples. 


112  EPHESIANS. — CHAP.  VI. 

The  "breastplate"  is  righteousness.  Apparently  Paul  follows 
Isa.  59  :  17:  "  For  he  (the  Lord)  put  on  righteousness  as  a  breast- 
plate, and  an  helmet  of  salvation  upon  his  head." 

To  the  Thessalonians  (1  Eps.  5:  8)  Paul  slightly  changes  the 
figure: — "Putting  on  the  breastplate  of  faith  and  love,  and  for 
an  helmet  the  hope  of  salvation  ;  "  w^hich  shows  that  general 
rather  than  very  specific  analogies  answered  his  purpose  and  met 

his  views. "Righteousness"  may  well  be  taken  in  the  sense 

of  Christian  moral  rectitude — that  righteousness  which  belongs 
to  the  "  new  man  in  Christ  Jesus."  The  shoes  or  sandals  for  the 
feet  (v.  15)  are  less  clearly  defined.  The  literal  translation  would 
be — "the  preparedness  of  the  gospel  of  grace  " — which  would 
seem  to  mean — having  your  feet  ever  ready  to  go  forth  bearing 
the  gospel  message.  Let  not  your  fight  against  the  devil  detain 
you  a  moment  from  preaching  the  gospel.  In  fact,  this  is  your 
true  war  policy,  to  carry  the  fight  into  Satan's  kingdom.  Never 
be  content  to  stand  on  the  defensive.  Keep  your  feet  shod  and  be 
ready  for  your  "marching  orders." 

In  V.  16,  not  "  above  all "  in  the  sense  of  more  important  than 
all  the  rest ;  but  over  all  the  rest — outside  of  them,  or  perhaps, 
in  addition  to  all.  The  Roman  shield  was  a  huge  thing,  in  the  shape 
of  a  door,  from  which  its  ancient  name  is  taken ;  often  six  feet 
long — wide  as  well  as  long  enough  to  protect  the  whole  person. 
It  was  attached  to  the  left  arm,  thus  leaving  the  right  free  for 
use  in  blows  or  in  hurling  missile  weapons.  Upon  this  shield 
the  agile  soldier  was  to  catch  the  fire-tipt  darts.     This  office  in 

the  Christian's  armor,  his  faith   must  perform. Receive  (from 

Him  who  can  supply  it)  the  helmet,  viz.,  salvation — the  assured 
hope  of  it  in  the  future  world,  and  to  some  extent  the  realization 
of  it  in  the  present.  The  sword,  furnished  to  our  hand  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  is  his  word  of  truth.  The  writer  to  the  Hebrews 
has  the  same  figure  (4  :  12);  "  the  word  of  God,  sharper  than  any 
double-edged  sword,"  etc. 

18.  Praying  always  with  all  prayer  and  supplication  in 
the  Spirit,  and  watching  thereunto  with  all  perseverance  and 
supplication  for  all  saints ; 

19.  And  for  me,  that  utterance  may  be  given  unto  me, 
that  I  may  open  my  mouth  boldly,  to  make  known  the  mys- 
tery of  the  go.spel, 

20.  For  Avhich  I  am  an  embassador  in  bonds :  that  there- 
in I  may  speak  boldly,  as  I  ought  to  speak. 

Bunyan  carries  out  the  war  imagery  so  as  to  include  as  the 
best  of  these  death-weapons  this  "all-prayer."  Paul  means  that 
ye  pray  with  every  form  of  prayer  and  supplication — your  heart 
in  warm  fellowship  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  ever  seeking  his  in- 
spiration and  guidance,  whose  help  is  ever  needed  and  never  with- 
held from  tb(5  huml)le,  believing  suppliant.  Watch  unto  such 
prayer  and  [)erscvere  in  it  in  behalf  of  all  your  fellow-soldiers, 
and  not  least,  for  mt — that  1  may  be  fearless  and  may  have  scope 


EPHESIANS. CHAP.  VI.  113 

for  a  bold  utterance  of  my  message,  making  known  the  long 
unknown  gospel.  For  preaching  this  gospel  to  Gentiles  he  was 
then  an  embassador  for  Christ  in  chains  at  Rome.  In  answer  to 
these  prayers  he  hoped  to  be  soon  released  so  that  he  might  re- 
sume his  gospel  work  without  hindrance  or  fear. 

21.  But  that  ye  also  may  know  my  affairs,  and  how  I  do, 
Tychicus,  a  beloved  brother  and  faithful  minister  in  the 
Lord,  shall  make  known  to  you  all  things; 

22.  Whom  I  have  sent  unto  you  for  the  same  purpose, 
that  ye  might  know  our  affairs,  and  that  he  might  comfort 
your  hearts. 

This  letter  he  sends  by  Tychicus  who  can  give  them  all  the  in- 
formation as  to  his  state  which  they  might  desire. 

This  sending  by  a  personal  friend  made  it  unnecessary  to  write 

in  detail  of  himself,  or  to  send  individual  salutations. "  That 

ye  also"  (v.  21)  as  well  as  others,  implied  that  he  would  carry 
this  epistle  to  other  churches  for  their  public  reading.  Col.  4 :  7 
shows  that  Tychicus  was  to  visit  the  Colossians  also,  and  person- 
ally report  Paul's  circumstances  to  them  as  well.  "All  my  state 
shall  Tychicus  declare  unto  you."  This  brother  beloved  is  named 
elsewhere— Acts  20 :  4  and  2  Tim.  4 :  12  and  Tit.  3  :  12. 

23.  Peace  be  to  the  brethren,  and  love  with  faith,  from 
God  the  Father  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

24.  Grace  he  with  all  them  that  love  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  in  sincerity.    Amen. 

This  benediction,  always  in  order  because  always  the  fit  utter- 
ance of  the  apostle's  great  and  loving  heart,  has  this  peculiarity ; — 
Grace  for  those  who  love  the  Lord  Jesus  "z?i  sincerity  " — the  Greek 
word  strictly  meaning  incorruption — with  a  love  and  a  spirit  that 
knows  no  decline,  no  decay ;  that  will  be  immutable ;  forever 
fresh  and  evermore  enduring. 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   PHILIPPIANS. 


INTKODUCTION. 

It  was  in  the  niiclst  of  Paul's  second  missionary  tour  that, 
having  traversed  Phrygia  and  Galatia,  he  was  admonished 
that  his  inner  Guide  did  not  accept  his  thought  of  travers- 
ing the  more  northern  and  western  provinces  of  Asia  Minor. 
Under  this  suspense  his  party  had  reached  the  port  of  Troas 
when  a  night-vision  brought  to  him  a  special  summons — 
(Avas  it  an  angel's  voice?) — ''Come  over  into  Macedonia, 
and  help  us."  They  heard  it  as  from  the  Lord,  and  pass- 
ing the  Hellespont,  bore  the  gospel  into  what  was  to  them 
the  Great  Continent  of  the  West.  Hitherto,  the  regions 
skirting  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Mediterranean  had  been 
the  theater  of  apostolic  travel  and  labor.  Now,  Macedonia, 
Greece,  Italy,  and  Kome  lay  before  them.  It  was  a  great 
step  in  advance  toward  ' '  going  into  all  the  world  and  preach- 
ing the  gospel  to  every  creature." 

From  Neapolis,  the  port  on  the  western  shore,  a  journey 
inland  of  nine  miles  brought  them  to  Philippi — "the  chief 
city  in  that  part  of  Macedonia,  and  a  colony"  (Acts  16: 
12).  This  important  city,  built  by  Philip  of  Macedon  and 
named  for  him,  became  celebrated  as  the  place  of  the  deci- 
sive battle  which  (B.  C.  42)  crushed  the  party  of  Brutus 
and  Cassius,  and  gave  the  undisputed  scepter  of  Kome  to 
Augustus  and  Anthony.  Subsequently  when  Augustus  re- 
warded his  veterans  with  the  finest  lands  and  cities  of  Italy, 
he  colonized  some  of  the  dispossessed  Koman  citizens  in  this 
city,  Philippi,  thus  making  it  a  Roman  colony,  and  many 
of  its  people  Roman  citizens.  AVith  his  usual  historic  accu- 
racy Luke  not  only  tells  us  this  was  "a  colony"  (16:  12), 
and  represents  the  men  who  arrested  Paul  and  Silas  as  call- 
ing themselves  "  Romans"  (v.  21),  but  he  gives  the  rulers 
of  the  city  the  Roman  title  (Archons,  v.  19)  and  the  mag- 
istrates yet  [mother  Roman  title,  occurring  elsewhere  but 
rarely  in  his  history  (strategoi).  The  tact  and  manly  in- 
dependence shown  by  Paul  in  asserting  his  rights  as  a  Ro- 
(111) 


INTRODUCTION.  115 

man  citizen,  and  the  consternation  of  the  nlagistrates  when 
they  learned  this  fact  (v.  37,  38)  have  their  explanation  in 
the  estimate  of  Roman  citizenship,  prevalent  in  this  colonial 
city.  Here  then  more  directly  than  ever  before  the  gospel 
came  into  contact  with  Roman  civilization. 

Of  the  labors  and  experiences  of  Paul  and  Silas  in  this 
city,  Luke  (Acts  16:  12-40)  has  given  some  of  the  salient 
points.  Here  they  found  a  group  of  devout  people  who 
were  accustomed  on  the  Sabbath  to  go  outside  the  city  walls 
to  a  place  of  prayer  by  the  side  of  the  river  Strymon. 
Thither  went  they  also,  and  sat  down  there  and  spake  to  the 
company,  chiefly  if  not  exclusively  women  "who  resorted 
thither."  In  that  group  was  a  woman  of  some  note  by  the 
name  of  Lydia,  of  Thyatira  (Asia  Minor),  a  dealer  in  pur- 
ple cloths — probably  from  her  native  city.  Her  heart  the 
Lord  opened  to  attend  to  Paul's  words.  Li  the  result,  she 
sliortly  opened  her  house  and  home  in  Christian  hospitality 
and  welcome  to  these  stranger  missionaries. 

Here  occurred  another  special  experience.  A  certain 
damsel,  having  the  spirit  of  divination — a  demoniac  of  the 
general  character  of  those  whom  Jesus  so  often  encountered, 
but  having  as  her  specialty  the  gift  (or  pretense)  of  divining 
and  telling  men's  fortunes — was  led,  apparently  by  this  ma- 
lign spirit,  to  follow  Paul  and  Silas,  day  after  day,  proclaim- 
ing— "These  men  are  the  servants  of  the  Most  High  God, 
and  are  showing  us  the  way  of  salvation."  Such  help  to  his 
cause  was  not  at  all  to  Paul's  mind.  Harassed  and  grieved 
by  the  annoyance  and  scandal  which  demoniac  testimony 
might  bring  upon  their  cause,  he  turned  and  said  to  the 
spirit  (not  to  the  damsel,  but  to  the  demon  spirit) — "  I  com- 
mand thee  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  to  come  out  of  her : " 
and  he  came  out.  The  sequel  of  this  exorcism  was  a  fu- 
rious persecution,  a  cruel  scourging,  and  a  close,  severe 
imprisonment.  The  result  of  these  scenes  in  the  prison 
added  yet  another  valuable  accession  to  the  group  of  be- 
lievers— the  Roman  jailer  and  his  household.  Paul  and 
Silas  having  been  very  politely  and  urgently  requested  to 
leave  the  city,  at  length,  though  very  deliberately  and  in  a 
dignified  manner,  consented  to  do  so  and  passed  on.  But 
the  gospel  was  effectually  planted  in  that  city. 

These  events  may  be  dated  proximately  in  A.  D.  51,  not 

long  after  the  great  council  at  Jerusalem  (Acts  15)  : If 

Ave  may  rely  upon  the  accuracy  of  Luke's  narrative  in  his 
varying  use,  now  of  the  first  person  ("  we  "),  and  now  of  the 


116  INTRODUCTION. 

third  ("they")*  to  determine  his  presence  or  absence,  he 
was  with  Paul  at  Philippi,  but  was  not  with  him  when  he 
and  his  party  left  the  city  and  passed  on  to  other  cities  of 
Macedonia  and  Greece.  Indeed,  Luke  appears  next  in  the 
company  of  Paul  (Acts  20:  5)  when  "  twe  sailed  away  from 
Philippi."  It  is  therefore  supposable,  and  indeed,  highly 
probable,  that  Luke  spent  most  or  all  of  the  intervening 
seven  years  at  or  near  Philippi  preaching  the  gospel  and 
ministering  to  that  church — which  labors  may  account  for 
the  remarkably  wholesome  tone  of  the  Christian  life  in  this 
church — a  tone  which  is  apparent  throughout  this  epistle. 

That  this  epistle  is  genuine^  i.  e.,  written  by  Paul  and  to 
this  very  church  at  Philippi,  not  even  the  most  skeptical 
of  critics  have  found  any  plausible  reason  to  doubt.  Truly 
the  signs  of  an  epistle  ojp  Paul  are  all  here — in  the  introduc- 
tion ;  in  the  personal  allusions ;  in  the  outbreathings  of  a 
great  and  loving  soul,  and  in  the  concluding  salutations. 

Nor  is  there  room  for  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  date 
of  its  ivriting — near  the  close  of  his  two  years'  confinement 
at  Rome — i.  e. ,  A.  D.  62.  He  was  then  still  enduring  this 
confinement  (1 :  12-14),  but  hoping  to  be  released  soon 
(2 :  24). 

As  to  the  occasion  of  the  epistle :  It  was  not  some  sad  de- 
fection— nascent  or  developed,  calling  for  sharp  rebuke  or 
earnest  argument,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Galatian  churches; 
it  was  not  some  flagrant  immoralities,  such  as  appeared  in 
Corinth,  calling  for  his  promj^t  and  vigorous  hand  of  ex- 
cision. But  apparently,  the  occasion  was  not  single  but 
manifold,  including  the  gratitude  he  felt  and  wished  to  ex- 
press for  their  manifested  love  and  sympathy  and  for  their 
supplies  of  his  personal  wants ; — the  love  of  his  heart  for  a 
people  so  loving  and  so  lovely;  his  joy  in  every  remembrance 
of  them  in  his  daily  prayers  in  their  behalf;  the  comfort  he 
felt  as  his  thought  rested  upon  this  one  church  which  had 
caused  him  apparently  no  pain  but  only  pleasure,  and  in 
which,  unlike  every  other,  he  saw  nothing  to   rebuke  but 

much  to  commend. It  should,  however,  be  observed  that 

his  Philippian  flock  was  suffering  a  measure  of  persecution 
(1  :  29,  30),  and  that  there  was  occasion  for  exhorting  them 
to  moderation,  gentleness,  humility,  and  great  self-abnega- 
tion (2:  2-5),  and  not  least,  to  unity  of  Christian  feeling, 
and  against  admitting  to  their  confidence  the  Jewish  and 
Judai/ing  bigots  of  that  age  (3:  2-7). 

Tlie  points    of  special  interest  and    value   to  us  in   this 


INTRODUCTION.  117 

epistle  are  manifold,  and  are  also  very  obvious. It  is  re- 
freshing to  have  such  a  manifestation  of  the  great  wealth  of 
Christian  love  in  this  apostle's  heart.  It  is  at  least  a  pleas- 
ure if  not  a  profit  to  see  that  God's  kind  hand  toward  him 
gave  him  one  such  oasis  as  this  in  his  troubled,  anxious, 
toilsome  life — one  chui'ch  to  which  his  mind  could  revert 
with  apjDarently  no  sad  associations  or  reminiscences;  one 
church  that  had  remembered  his  personal  necessities  and 
ministered  to  their  supply ;  and  withal,  in  such  a  spirit  that 
Paul  could  feel  free  and  happy  to  receive  them. 

It  is  also  profitable  to  study  such  an  epistle  for  the  sake 
of  marking  the  nature  of  the  counsels  he  gave  them  ;  the  at- 
tainments to  which  he  exhorts  them;  the  really  "higher 
life"  as  it  lay  before  the  mind  of  the  great  apostle,  and  the 
higher  duties  to  which  Paul  directs  the  energies  of  this  best 
and  most  hopeful — perhaps  most  advanced — church  ever 
gathered  under  his  labors.  If  we  may  assume  that  this  was, 
all  in  all,  the  best  of  Paul's  missionary  churches,  and  that 
this  group  of  converts  were  appreciative,  receptive,  respon- 
sive above  any  other  in  his  world-wide  field  of  knowledge 
and  care,  then  surely  the  study  of  his  words  to  them  ought 
to  be  pre-eminently  instructive  to  us  as  bearing  upon  the 
really  higher  walks  of  the  earthly  Christian  life. 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  PIITLITPIANS. 


CHAPTER  I. 


The  scope  of  this  chapter  is  the  breathing  forth  of  the  apos- 
tle's deep  love  for  the  church  at  Philippi,  and  of  his  unceasing 
prayers  in  their  behalf  (v.  1-11),  with  some  allusion  to  his  im- 
prisonment at  Rome  and  its  results  there  (v.  12-14),  and  to  di- 
vers sorts  of  professedly  Christian  work  then  in  progress  there 
(v.  15-18);  to  his  own  thoughts  in  view  of  living  or  not  living, 
being  himself  in  a  strait  between  the  two  (v.  19-24) ;  his  domi- 
nant expectation  as  to  his  immediate  future  (v.  25,26);  concluding 
with  exhortations  to  an  earnest,  fearless  Christian  life  (v.  27-30). 

1.  Paul  and  Tiraotheus,  the  servants  of  Jesus  Christ,  to 
all  the  saints  in  Christ  Jesus  which  are  at  Philij^pi,  with  the 
bishops  and  deacons : 

2.  Grace  be  unto  you,  and  peace,  from  God  our  Father 
Sindfrom  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

A  good  reason  for  Timothy's  name  here  lies  in  the  fact  that  at 
this  writing  he  was  with  Paul  at  Ro-me;  had  been  with  him  in 
his  labors  at  Philippi;  felt  personally  the  deepest  interest  in  the 
church  at  Philippi,  to  which  Paul  bears  a  very  remarkable  tes- 
timony in  this  letter  (2:  19-23). We  may  notice  that  Timo- 
thy's name  appears  in  the  same  connection  as  uniting  with  Paul 
in  his  letter  to  Colosse;  in  his  second  to  Corinth;  and  both  his 
name  and  that  of  Silas  [Silvanus]  in  the  two  letters  to  Thessa- 
lonica.     To   the   Romans,  Galatians,   Ephesians,  and  in   all   the 

pastoral  epistles,  Paul  prefixes  his  own  name  only. Moreover, 

it  may  be  noticed  that  Paul  wrote  as  an  apostle  in  every  epistle 
except  this  to  Philippi,  those  to  Thessalonica,  and  that  to  Phil- 
emon. In  these  there  was  no  occasion  even  to  allude  to  his 
apostolic  authority  and  relations.  In  this,  he  is  "  the  servant 
of  Jesus  Christ;' — to  Philemon,  "the  prisoner;"  while  to  the 
Thessalonians  he  attaches  no  descriptive  epitliet  to  his  name. 

Paul  writes  to  all  the  saints,  but  specifies  in  particular  "the 
bishops  and  deacons" — a  fact  which  sufficiently  indicates  that 
these  and  these  only  were  the  normal  officers  of  the  church — so 
many  orders  and  no  more.  Probably  the  reason  for  referring  to 
them  specially  was  that  they  had  been  active  and  prominent  in 
gatherinii;  and  forwartlini^  those  supplies  for  his  personal  wants 
(118) 


PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    I.  119 

in  which  this  church  had  distinguished  itself  and  for  which  Paul 
felt  profoundly  grateful  to  them  and  to  God. 
The  benediction  (v.  2)  is  in  Paul's  usual  form. 

3.  I  thank  my  God  upon  every  remembrance  of  you, 

4.  Always  in  every  prayer  of  mine  for  you  all  making 
request  with  joy, 

5.  For  your  fellowship  in  the  gospel  from  the  first  day 
until  now ; 

In  V.  5,  the  meaning  is  not  that  he  asks  for  their  fellowship  as 
a  blessing  which  they  need  yet  have  not,  but  rather  that  he  is 
moved  to  joyful  prayer  in  their  behalf  by  the  fact  of  their  having 
had  such  fellowship — such  free  and  full-hearted  sympathy  in  the 
progress  of  the  gospel  from  their  very  conversion  to  that  hour. 
The  reference  is  specially  to  their  generous  contributions  to  his 
support  while  laboring  elsewhere  in  his  great  mission  work,  and 
to  the  spirit  which  such  benefactions  implied.  We  ought  to  no- 
tice the  warm  heart  of  this  great  apostle,  his  deep  sympathy  with 
his  faithful  converts,  his  continual  and  joyful  prayer  in  their  be- 
half 

6.  Being  confident  of  this  very  thing,  that  he  which  hath 
begun  a  good  work  in  you  will  perform  it  until  the  day  of 
Jesus  Christ : 

7.  Even  as  it  is  meet  for  me  to  think  this  of  you  all,  be- 
cause I  have  you  in  my  heart ;  inasmuch  as  both  in  my 
bonds,  and  in  the  defense  and  confirmation  of  the  gospel,  ye 
all  are  partakers  of  my  grace. 

I  am  very  sure  God  has  begun  his  good  work  in  your  souls,  the 
proof  of  it  to  me  being  this — that  ye  are  partakers  of  the  same 
grace  which  God  gave  me  to  suffer  unto  bonds  joyfully  for  the 
gospel,  and  to  labor  patiently  for  its  defense  and  confirmation. 
Confident  that  God  has  thus  begun  his  work  in  you,  I  know  he 
will  perform  it — carry  it  through  to  its  final  consummation — at 
the  day  of  Christ  Jesus.  His  sanctifying  work  in  human  hearts, 
he  never  leaves  unfinished  ! 

The  question  has  been  raised  whether  this  "good  work  begun" 
had  any  special  reference  to  their  benefactions — their  spirit  of 
active  sympathy  and  help  in  Paul's  missionary  work.  I  would 
reply :  That  manifestation  of  Christian  spirit  and  character  was 
very  probably  prominent  in  Paul's  thought,  yet  rather  as  a  proof 
of  their  real  and  deep  sympathy  with  Christ  than  as  constituting 
in  itself  the  whole  of  their  piety.  Paul  shows  in  this  very  con- 
nection that  he  thinks  of  them  as  partakers  of  all  the  grace  which 
God  had  given  him  to  labor  and  to  suffer  for  Christ. 

Why  does  Paul  say,  "Perform  it  unto  the  day  of  Christ  Jesus," 
instead  of  saying  "unto  the  day  of  your  death?" — a  question  par- 
ticularly interesting  as  bearing  upon  another,  viz  :  Did  they  really 
look  for  Christ's  second  coming  before  their  own  death  ?    So  some 


120  PIIILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    I. 

critics  have  assumed,  but  without  sufficient  ground.  For  plainly, 
in  Paul's  view,  death,  considered  simply  as  death — the  dissolution 
of  soul  from  body — was  a  small  matter.  The  meeting  with  Christ, 
the  entering  into  the  joy  of  his  Lord,  was  the  great  thing — so 
great  that  it  quite  eclipsed  the  other,  and  therefore  naturally  gave 
name  to  the  great  event.  They  (Paul  and  his  brethren)  knew 
as  well  as  we  do  that  death  is  the  limit  of  the  Christian  conflict, 
the  point  where  his  destiny  is  decided ;  and  they  also  felt  (ap- 
parently more  than  we  are  wont  to  do)  that  death  is  to  every  saint 
the  personal  coming  of  his  Lord  to  meet  him  and  take  his  spirit 
up  to  its  eternal  joy  in  the  Lord.  "  I  will  come  again,  and  receive 
you  unto  myself,  that  where  I  am  there  ye  may  be  also,"  were 
words  whose  significance  had  become  glorious  in  their  thought, 
and  had  given  coloring  to  their  accustomed  mode  of  speaking  of 
that  day.  It  was  this  coming  of  the  Lord  to  their  individual  souls 
at  their  death  to  take  them  to  himself  and  to  his  prepared  man- 
sions, that  made  this  dying  day  "the  day  of  Christ"  to  their 
hearts,  and  in  their  Christian  vocabulary.  Note  how  natural  it  is 
for  Paul  to  use  this  phrase  (1 :  10) :  "  That  ye  may  be  sincere  and 
without  offense  till  the  day  q/"  Christ;"  i.  e.,  through  all  your 
life,  till  your  day  of  death.     Also  (2:  16):  "That  I  may  rejoice 

in  the  day  of  Chnst  that  I  have  not  run  in  vain." If  there 

were  the  least  occasion  for  argument  to  prove  that  in  our  passage 
(1  :  6)  "until  the  day  of  Christ"  must  mean  until  your  day  of 
death,  and  not  until  the  day  of  Christ's  second  visible  coming  to 
raise  the  dead,  we  might  say — Look  at  the  sense  of  this  passage, 
and  also  at  the  sense  of  this  phrase  in  its  relations  to  the  context. 
This  ''day'  is  a  point  of  time,  and  is  here  put  as  a  limit,  a  ter- 
minus, nnto  or  until  which  a  certain  work  is  to  be  carried  on. 
This  work  is  the  good  work  of  grace,  which  the  Spirit  began  at 
their  new  birth  or  conversion.  When  does  this  work  reach  its 
consummation  ?  At  what  point  of  time  does  all  temptation  to  sin 
cease  and  all  danger  of  failure,  all  contingency  as  to  the  Christian's 
future  come  to  its  end  ?  Is  it  at  his  day  of  death,  or  is  it  at  the 
day  of  Christ's  second  coming  to  raise  the  dead?  To  say  the  lat- 
ter is  to  assume  that  the  work  of  sanctification,  with  all  its  contin- 
gencies, is  to  pass  over  into  and  indeed  through  the  intermediate 
state  and  not  end  till  Christ's  second  coming!  But  this  is  by  no 
means  the  doctrine  of  Scri])ture.  It  is  not  the  doctrine  of  Paul 
even  in  tliis  very  chapter;  for  with  him,  "to  depart  at  death  is  to 
be  ivith  Christ' — a  state,  compared  Avitli  the  l)est  life  on  earth, 
inconceivably  "better,"  and  beyond  question  the  real  heavenly 
state.  Therefore  in  Paul's  usage,  "the  day  of  Christ  is  the  Chris- 
tian's day  of  death."  Death  brings  him  into  the  very  presence 
of  the  glorified  Christ. 

On  this  passage,  Ellicott  remarks:  "That  Paul  in  these  words 
assumes  the  nearness  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord  (as  Alford  sup- 
poses) can  not  be  positively  asserted.  The  day  of  Christ,  whether 
far  off  or  near,  is  to  each  individual  the  decisive  day;  it  is  prac- 
tically coincident  with  the  day  of  his  death,  and  becomes,  when 


PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    I.  121 

addressed  to  the  individual,  an  exaltation  and  amplification  of  the 
term." 

8.  For  God  is  my  record,  how  greatly  I  long  after  you  all 
in  the  bowels  of  Jesus  Christ. 

9.  And  this  I  pray,  that  your  love  may  abound  yet  more 
and  more  in  knowledge  and  in  all  judgment  ; 

10.  That  ye  may  approve  things  that  are  excellent ;  that 
ye  may  be  sincere  and  without  offense  till  the  day  of  Christ ; 

11.  Being  filled  with  the  fruits  of  righteousness,  which  are 
by  Jesus  Christ,  unto  the  glory  and  praise  of  God. 

Paul  invokes  God  to  witness  not  to  the  fact  but  to  the  intensity 
of  his  love  and  longing  for  his  Philippian  converts ;  and  notice- 
ably, speaks  of  this  love  and  longing  as  being — he  does  not  say, 
in  his  ovi^n  bowels,  but  "  in  the  bowels  of  Christ  Jesus,"  in  whom 
his  very  being  is  so  united,  and  especially  his  Christian  sympa- 
thies, that  it  seemed  to  him  that  Christ's  own  loving  heart  was 
beating  within  his. 

It  ought  to  be  instructive  to  us  to  mark  what  such  a  loving 
heart  (so  much  of  Christ's  own  heart  throbbing  in  it)  would  pray 
for  in  behalf  of  those  he  loved  so  tenderly.  Here  it  is  :  •'  That 
your  love  may  abound  to  the  result  of  your  having  more  and  more 
knowledge  and  spiritual  perception  of  truth  in  every  form ;  that 
ye  may  prove  and  so  approve  whatever  things  are  truly  excel- 
lent; that  ye  may  be  pure  and  blameless  (causing  none  to  stum- 
ble) against  the  day  of  Christ.  Against  rather  than  "  vniil"  (is 
the  sense  of  the  original),  i.  e.,  as  preparation  for  that  day  rather 
than  as  continuing  until  that  day.  "  Being  filled  with  the  fruit" 
(singular  as  to  number)  "of  righteousness,"  which  phrase,  there- 
fore, looks  not  so  much  toward  Christian  virtues  in  detail  as  to- 
M'ard  intrinsic  righteousness  of  character  and  conduct  as  a  whole. 
This  comes  through  Jesus  Christ,  and  is  to  the  glory  and  praise 
of  God;  "glory"  being  the  inherent  majesty  of  God,  and  "praise" 
the  glorification  of  it  by  the  homage  of  his  creatures.  All  real 
righteousness  of  character  in  our  race,  being  the  result  of  God's 
interposing,  redeeming  love,  inures  of  right  to  his  eternal  honor 
and  praise.  Verily  this  prayer  by  the  apostle  for  his  Philippian 
brethren  groups  the  precious,  vital  things  of  the  Christian  life, 
showing  what  we  may  well  implore  both  for  ourselves  and  for  our 
brethren  in  the  Lord. 

12.  But  I  would  ye  should  understand,  brethren,  that  the 
things  which  happened  unto  me  have  fallen  out  rather  unto 
the  furtherance  of  the  gospel ; 

13.  So  that  my  bonds  in  Christ  are  manifest  in  all  the 
palace,  and  in  all  other  places ; 

14.  And  many  of  the  brethren  in  the  Lord,  waxing  con- 
fident by  my  bonds,  are  much  more  bold  to  s^Jeak  the  word 
without  fear. 


122  PIIILIPPIANS. — CHAP.  I. 

Some  information  which  they  will  rejoice  to  hear.  The  things 
that  have  befallen  me  (in  my  imprisonment  here)  have  served,  not 
to  retard  the  gospel,  but  to  promote  its  wider  diffusion.  The  fact 
of  my  being  a  prisoner  for  Christ  because  I  would  preach  a  com- 
mon gospel  to  Gentiles  as  to  Jews  has  become  known  at  the  pre- 
torian  head-quarters,  and  perhaps  he  meant,  in  the  very  palace  of 
the  Caesars,  as  well  as  extensively  elsewhere.  Through  sympathy 
with  me  in  my  imprisonment  the  greater  part  of  the  brethren 
(more  accurate  than  "many")  have  been  inspired  and  encour- 
aged to  greater  boldness  in  preaching  Christ  Moreover,  the 
words  "  in  the  Lord"  (v.  14)  should  be  connected  with  "having 
confidence,"  rather  than  with  "brethren."  Having  confidence  in 
the  Lord,  inspired  by  my  bonds,  they  are  more  abundantly  bold 
to  speak  the  word  of  God  fearlessly.  Such  an  example  of  heroic 
suffering  for  Christ  was  gloriously  inspiring. 

15.  Some  indeed  preach  Christ  even  of  envy  and  strife  ; 
and  some  also  of  good  will : 

16.  The  one  preach  Christ  of  contention,  not  sincerely, 
supposing  to  add  affliction  to  my  bonds: 

17.  But  the  other  of  love,  knowing  that  I  am  set  for  the 
defense  of  the  gospel. 

18.  What  then  ?  notwithstanding,  every  way,  whether  in 
pretense,  or  in  truth,  Christ  is  preached ;  and  I  therein  do 
rejoice,  yea,  and  will  rejoice. 

The  men  alluded  to  here  as  preaching  Christ  of  cnvj  and  strife 
were  probably  certain  Judaizing  teachers,  appearing  at  Rome,  as 
they  did  also  in  the  region  of  Galatia,  although  these  may  have 
been  less  exceptionable  than  those  in  Asia.  AH  were  envious  of 
Paul's  reputation  and  success;  were  entirely  out  of  sympathy 
with  him  in  his  doctrine  and  practice  as  to  Gentile  converts ;  yet 
whose  preaching  of  Christ  was  perhaps  better  than  none,  so  that 
Paul  might  reasonably  find  some  satisfiiction  in  it,  although  done 
in  a  spirit  thoroughly  hostile  to  himself.  It  was  truly  noble  in 
Paul  to  so  far  ignore  himself  if  only  Christ  were  preached  and 
some  good  done  thereby.  In  the  case  of  those  who  preached 
Christ  the  more  earnestly  out  of  love  to  him  in  his  imprisonment, 
he  could  rejoice  pre-eminently,  not  merely  because  of  their  more 
pleasant  relations  to  himself,  Imt  because  of  the  better  quality  of 
their  heart  and  life  in  every  respect,  and  consequently  the  better 
quality  of  their  Christian  work. 

19.  For  I  know  that  this  shall  turn  to  my  salvation 
through  your  prayer,  and  the  supply  of  the  Spirit  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

20.  According  to  my  earnest  expectation  and  my  hope, 
that  in  nothing  1  shall  be  ashamed,  but  that  with  all  bold- 
ness, as  always,  «o  now  also  Christ  shall  be  magnified  in  my 
body,  whether  it  be  by  life,  or  by  death. 


PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.  I.  123 

What  is  referred  to  under  the  word  "  this  "  (v.  19)  as  a  thing 
to  "  turn  toward  his  salvation  ?  "  The  natural  antecedent  is  the 
same  Greek  word  (v.  18),  somewhat  obscured  in  our  translation 
under  the  word  "  therein,"  which  is  really — "  In  this  do  I  rejoice." 
The  answer  then  will  be — in  their  preaching  of  Christ,  and  per- 
haps, enlarging  the  view — in  all  real  preaching  of  Christ,  by 
whomsoever  done.  His  consciousness  of  unselfish  joy  in  that 
particular  preaching  doubtless  contributed  to  his  precious  assur- 
ance that  his  personal  salvation  would  be  the  result — promoted 
however  by  their  prayer  in  his  behalf,  and  the  answer  to  it  in 
the  more  abundant  bestowal  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  He  adds — All 
this  is  in  accordance  with  what  I  have  most  earnestly  prayed  and 
longed  for,  viz.,  that  in  nothing  shall  I  be  frustrated — put  to  shame 
— but  that  Christ  shall  be  magnified,  honored,  and  glorified  in  my 
body — in  my  earthly  life,  whether  I  live  yet  longer,  or  die  by 
martyrdom.  He  had  no  higher^we  may  truly  say — no  other 
ambition  than  to  glorify  Christ;  and  it  was  of  the  smallest  imag- 
inable consequence  to  him  w^hether  this  were  accomplished  by  his 
living  or  his  dying.  This  was  his  sense  of  what  consecration  to 
Christ  means.  For  this  he  had  "  all  boldness  " — no  other  feeling 
but  boldness. 

21.  For  to  me  to  live  is  Christ,  and  to  die  is  gain. 

22.  But  if  I  live  in  the  flesh,  this  ts  the  fruit  of  my  labor: 
yet  what  I  shall  choose  I  wot  not. 

23.  For  I  am  in  a  strait  betwixt  two,  having  a  desire  to 
depart,  and  to  be  wdth  Christ ;  which  is  far  better : 

24.  Nevertheless  to  abide  in  the  flesh  is  more  needful  for 
you. 

If  we  would  ask  Paul  to  explain  what  he  can  mean  by  such 
words,  here  it  is.  "For" — as  to  me — living  is  Christ;  dying  is 
gain.  Living  means  more  service,  toilsome,  yet  sweet  and  joyous, 
for  Christ — precious  to  me  because  done  for  him  I  love  : — and 
dying  is  nothing  but  "  gain  " — as  he  will  soon  show.  If  the  re- 
sult shall  be  longer  "  living  in  the  flesh,"  as  contrasted  with  liv- 
ing in  the  heavenly  spiritual  life  above,  and  this  living  in  the  flesh 
carries  with  it  fruits  of  labor  in  the  salvation  of  souls,  then  a 
new  element  comes  in  for  consideration,  and  between  the  personal 
gain  of  dying  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  results  of  my  apostolic 
labors  on  the  other,  I  am  in  a  strait ;  I  am  held  in  suspense ;  I 
am  drawn  powerfully  in  each  of  two  opposite  directions,  having 
"  the  desire"  (the  article  is  here) — that  desire  so  well  known  in 
Christian  experience,  to  depart,  by  a  release  from  flesh,  analogous 
to  the  launching  of  a  vessel  cut  loose  from  her  moorings  (as 
Paul's  Greek  word  suggests) ;  and  the  being  icith  Christ — for  this 
is  very  far  the  better  of  the  two.  But  to  abide  in  the  flesh  is 
more  necessary  for  you. 

Let  the  reader  carefully  note  here — This  great  alternative 
which  puts  the  apostle  in  such  straits  as  to  choice,  is  not  between 
living  to  work  for  Christ  here  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other, 


124  PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    I. 

going  away  into  long  unconsciousness — a  state  of  soul-sleep — 
waiting  (as  some  animals  do)  in  their  winter  torpor,  hybcrnating, 
to  be  thawed  out  with  returning  spring — the  torpid  soul  wait- 
ing for  the  resurrection  trump  to  bring  back  its  conscious- 
ness : — not  this  at  all  is  Paul's  alternative  of  perplexing  suspense. 
But  his  alternative  lies  between  such  living  as  "is  Christ''  be- 
cause it  is  serving  him  here  ;  and  a  departing  which  is  essentially 
being  ^' with  Christ" — which  instantaneously  results  in  being 
with  Christ  in  a  higher  sense  than  can  be  realized  here,  for  it  is 
wholly  peculiar  to  the  heavenly  world.  Moreover,  Paul's  words 
plainly  imply  that  this  transition  from  living  in  the  flesh  to  be- 
ing with  Christ,  takes  no  account  of  intervening  time.  The  be- 
ing "with  Christ"  follows  the  "departing"  with  no  appreciable 
state  or  time  intervening.  This  is  in  harmony  with  Christ's 
words  to  the  penitent  and  dying  thief:  "This  day  shalt  thou  be 
with  me  in  paradise."  Let  it  be  noted  also  that  as  "being  with 
Christ"  is  the  highest  and  best  description  of  the  intermediate 
state  (between  death  and  the  resurrection),  so  it  is  also  Paul's  de- 
scription of  the  saints'  eternal  blessedness:  "  So  shall  we  ever  be 
with  the  Lord"  (1  Thess.  4:  17).  "With  the  Lord  "—imme- 
diately after  death;  "forever  with  the  Lord" — in  the  perfected 
heavenly  state  beyond  the  final  judgment.  Whether  without  and 
before  the  resurrection  body — or  with  it — there  is  no  heaven 
without  Christ's  manifested  presence.  The  beginning  and  the 
consummation  of  the  heavenly  state  is — being  with  Christ. 

25.  And  having  this  confidence,  I  know  that  I  shall  abide 
and  continue  with  you  all  for  your  furtherance  and  joy  of 
faith ; 

26.  That  your  rejoicing  may  be  more  abundant  in  Jesus 
Christ  for  me  by  my  coming  to  you  again. 

Confident  that  his  prolonged  life  would  be  for  their  benefit,  he 
knows  that  Christ  will  spare  him  for  such  service — to  promote 
their  faith  and  joy,  consequent  upon  his  coming  to  them  yet 
again.  So  he  joyfully  Y)ostpones  the  higher  personal  blessedness 
of  departing  and  being  with  Christ. 

27.  Only  let  your  conversation  be  as  it  l)ecomcth  the  gos- 
pel of  Christ :  that  whether  I  come  and  see  you,  or  else  be 
absent,  I  may  hear  of  your  affairs,  that  ye  stand  fast  in  one 
spirit,  with  one  mind  striving  together  for  the  faith  of  the 
gospel; 

28.  And  in  nothing  terrified  by  your  adversaries :  which 
is  to  them  an  evident  token  of  perdition,  but  to  you  of  salva- 
tion, and  that  of  God. 

"Only"  (for  every  thing  turns  upon  this),  as  citizens  of  the 
heavenly  kingdom,  live  worth dy  of  tlie  gospel  of  Christ. — The 
word  "  conversation "  here  quite    misleads   the    merely  English 


PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    I.  125 

reader,  not  only  because  the  Greek  word  does  not  by  any  means 
signify  talk,  spoken  words,  but  because  it  means  more  than  the 
usual  Greek  word  translated  "conversation"  does  in  our  New 
Testament  version,  and  expresses  its  meaning  more  definitely. 
This  Greek  word  signifies — To  fulfill  your  duties  as  citizens,  i.  e., 
of  the  heavenly  kingdom.  It  should  be  compared  with  3:  20: 
"For  our  citizensMp  is  in  heaven;  we  are  citizens  of  that  king- 
dom. Paul  implores  them  to  act  the  part  of  loyal  citizens  of  this 
heavenly  kingdom,  in  a  manner  worthy  of  the  gospel  of  Christ. 
He  remembers  that  Philippi  is  a  Roman  colony ;  that  therefore 
its  people  enjoy  the  much  prized  rights  and  privileges  of  Roman 
citizens.  So  he  turns  their  thought  to  their  far  higher  privileges 
and  consequent  duties  as  citizens  of  Christ's  kingdom.  He  uses 
these  words,  signifying  citizenship  (here  and  in  3:  20)  in  this 
epistle  only  ;  for  he  wrote  to  no  other  Roman  colony.  His  wake- 
ful mind  never  missed  the  opportunity  to  put  the  most  telling 
force  possible  into  his  words  by  suggesting  such  illustrations  as 
would  come  with  clear  significance  and  impressive  emphasis  upon 
his  readers.* 

Let  me  hear  that  ye  stand  (in  the  military  sense  of  standing) 
in  entire  harmony  of  soul,  jointly  (all  as  one  man)  striving  to- 
gether {wrestling  is  the  Greek),  for  the  faith  of  the  gospel.' But 

shall  this  ''faith  of  the  gospel "  be  taken  in  the  sense  of  Chris- 
tian truth,  to  be  believed;  or  in  the  sense  of  growing,  progressive 

faith  in  their  hearts  ? Apparently,  the  former  as  means  to  an 

end;  the  latter  as  the  ultimate  end  itself.  The  truth  must  first 
be  vigorously  and  unitedly  maintained ;  then  be  heartily  believed 
and  made  to  work  out  all  the   results  in  the  soul  of  thoroughly 

believed  gospel  truth. And  be  in  'no  respect  alarmed  by  your 

persecuting  enemies — such  enmity  against  you  being  as  to  them 
a  token  and  proof  of  their  destruction,  for  it  proves  them  to  be 
enemies  of  God,  and  all  his  enemies  have  this  and  nothing  else 
than  this  to  expect.  Equally  is  it  to  you  a  proof  of  your  salva- 
tion, so  far  as  it  shows  you  to  be  on  the  side  of  God, 

29.  For  unto  you  it  is  given  in  the  behalf  of  Christ,  not 
only  to  believe  on  him,  but  also  to  suffer  for  his  sake ; 

30.  Having  the  same  conflict  which  ye  saw  in  me,  and 
now  hear  to  he  in  me. 

In  V.  29  the  emphatic  word  is  ''given'' — given  as  God's  richest 
blessing — in  two  parts;  (a.)  That  ye  should  have  faith  in  Christ; 
(&.)  That  ye  should  have  the  privilege  of  suffering  persecution 
for  his  sake.     That  this  latter  is  one  of  God's  blessings  is  the 

*  This  English  word  "  conversation  " — now  obsolete  in  the  sense 
of  our  translators — was  with  them  a  great  favorite,  having  been 
used  to  translate  at  least  three  different  Greek  words,  viz.,  anastrophe, 
twelve  times  ;  tropos,  once  (Heb.  13  :  5)  and  politeuma  once  (Phil.  3  : 
20)  besides  being  used  for  the  corresponding  verb  (Phil.  1:  27). 
These  two  last-named  cases  are  specially  suggestive,  as  we  have  seen. 


126  PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    II. 

doctrine  of  Scripture; — "If  we  suffer,  we  shall  also  reign  with 
him"  (2  Tim.  2:  11-13).  See  also  1  Peter  2:  20  and  3:  14  and 
4:    14,  19. 

Moreover,  reraemher  that  in  the  hottest  persecutions  that  will 
befall  you,  ye  will  only  be  in  the  same  wrestling  struggle  which 
ye  have  seen  in  me,  and  now  hear  that  I  am  enduring. 


>>*<<= 


CHAPTER  II. 

Intensely  earnest  exhortations  to  mutual  love  and  to  harmony 
of  thought  and  feeling  (v.  1,  2);  against  strife  and  vanity  and 
unto  unselfish  humility  (v.  3,  4) ;  enforced  by  reference  to  the 
mind  of  Christ  as  evinced  in  his  incarnation ;  his  disrobing  of 
himself  of  his  divine  majesty,  and  humbling  himself  even  to  a 
shameful  death  (v.  5-8) ;  for  which  God  exalted  him  to  the  throne 
of  the  highest  heavens  and  put  all  things  under  him  (v.  9-11). 
Exhortations  to  work  out  their  personal  salvation  because  God 
works  in  them  (v.  12,  13) — to  a  blameless  and  light-bearing 
Christian  life,  that  Paul,  their  apostle  may  rejoice  in  their  work 
(v.  14-16);  even  should  his  life  close  with  martyrdom,  he  will  re- 
joice, and  would  have  them  rejoice  also  (v.  17,  18).  Hopes  to 
send  Timothy  soon,  whom  he  commends  warmly  (v.  19-24);^  does 
send  Epaphroditus,  and  why  (v.  25-27);  and  commends  him  to 
their  warmest  sympathies  (v.  28-30). 

1.  If  there  be  therefore  any  consolation  in  Christ,  if  any 
comfort  of  love,  if  any  fellowship  of  the  Spirit,  if  any  bow- 
els and  mercies, 

2.  Fulfill  ye  my  joy,  that  ye  be  like-minded,  having  the 
same  love,  being  of  one  accord,  of  one  mind. 

The  drift  of  thought  here  can  not  well  be  missed : — I  implore 
you  by  all  the  power  of  motive  there  is  in  Christ,  in  love,  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  in  Christian  sympathy — by  all  these  considerations  I 
beseech  you  to  make  my  joy  complete  by  becoming  one  in  mind, 
in  spirit,  in  mutual  love. In  the  first  clause,  the  word  "  conso- 
lation "  should  be  exhortation,  this  more  precisely  representing 
the  Greek  word,  and  yielding  a  quite  unexceptionable  sense. 
Withal  it  avoids  what  is  almost  a  tautology  with  the  next  clause 
— for  between  "consolation  in  Christ,"  and  "comfort  of  love" 
the  shade  of  difference  is  very  slight.  If  the  name  of  Christ  car- 
ries in  it  any  force  of  exhortation  ;  if  there  is  any  joy  in  Chris- 
tian love;  if  ye  know  any  thing  of  fellowship  in  and  with  the  Holy 
(ihost;  if  ye  have  any  bowels  of  sympathy — then  make  my  joy 
full. And  my  joy  will  be  made  absolutely  full  by  your  becom- 
ing of  one  mind,  all  having  the  same  love,  and  your  heart  full  of 


PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.  II.  127 

it ;  having  a  common  soul,  or  yet  more  literally,  being  felloiv- 
souled,  all  caring  for  one  and  the  same  thing.  This  combination 
of  words,  all  looking  toward  the  utmost  Christian  harmony  of 
thought  and  feeling  and  the  richest  mutual  love,  is  very  remarka- 
ble.  Perhaps  in  the  matter  of   strict  exposition,  the    point  of 

chief  difiiculty  will  be — how  far  this  exhortation  to  think  the 
same  thing  reaches  into  the  realm  of  speculative  opinion  as  to 
minute  points  of  gospel  truth.  Can  it  be  supposed  that  Paul 
could  expect  or  exhort  all  minds  to  think  alike  upon  all  the  details 
of  gospel  doctrine  ?  Had  he  not  seen  enough  of  the  human  mind 
to  know  there  are  many  very  distinct  types  of  intellectual  char- 
acter, resulting  in  great  variety  as  to  the  way  of  apprehending 
truth  ? 

To  this  T  should  answer — Paul  did  not  concern  himself  greatly 
about  opinions  merely  speculative ;  but  he  did  long  to  have  all 
his  converts  hold  the  same  great  truths  of  the  gospel  wuth  like 
firmness  of  faith  and  all  in  the  same  spirit  of  love — the  mind  bent 
earnestly,  yea  supremely,  upon  the  one  common  end  of  holy  living 
and  holy  loving. 

3.  Let  nothing  be  done  through  strife  or  vain-glory ;  but 
in  lowliness  of  mind  let  each  esteem  other  better  than  them- 
selves. 

4.  Look  not  every  man  on  his  own  things,  but  every  man 
also  on  the  things  of  others. 

Verse  3  is  squarely  antithetic  to  v.  2,  describing  the  very  op- 
posite state  of  mind,  and   exhorting  against  it. In   the  first 

clause  Paul  gives  no  verb.  The  authorized  version  supplies  the 
verb  "do;  "  "Let  nothing  be  done"  etc.,  but  it  is  better  to  follow 
the  almost  invariable  law  for  supplying  ellipses,  viz.,  to  bring 
forward  the  last  preceding  word — which  in  the  present  case  is 
the  participle  translated  ''being  of  one  mind" — more  literally, 
minding  the  one  thing.  So  doing  we  have  this  sense : — minding 
nothing  in  the  way  of  strife  and  vain-glory ;  having  no  mind  that 
way;  no  thought,  no  passion,  no  love  or  aspiration  toward  strife 
and  vain  display  for  honor's  sake.  This,  it  will  be  seen,  is 
stronger  than  the  authorized  version  has  it;  for  instead  of  saying, 
Let  nothing  be  done,  this  says.  Let  nothing  of  that  sort  be  even 
thought.  It  carries  the  prohibition  back  to  the  very  fountain — 
to  the  thinking — to  the  mind's  activities,  and  lays  its  command 
upon  the  very  soul  itself This  looking  at  one's  own,  ex- 
cessively, is  the  fearfully  besetting  sin  of  unsanctified  men,  and 
perhaps  we  may  say  peculiarly  of  those  whose  living  turns  on 
their  reputation — professional  men  generally.  Paul  may  have 
had  his  eye  somewhat  on  those  who  were  pressing  themselves 
forward  as  religious  teachers — those  Judaizing  men  who  caused 
both  Paul  and  his  churches  so  much  trouble. 

Over  against  this  spirit,  let  them  in  lowliness  of  mind  account 
others  better  than  themselves.     With  a  truly  modest  estimate  of 


128  PHILIPPIANS. CHAP.    II. 

their  own  good  qualities,  let  them  place  others  above  themselves. 
Even  if  this  be  not  always  a  perfectly  truthful  estimate,  it  is  per- 
sonally safe. Calvin  raises  the  question — How  can  those  who 

really  and  obviously  excel  others  in  certain  points  conform  to 
this  precept?  He  answers  by  giving  this  view  of  the  humble- 
minded  man,"^  viz.,  "  He  is  so  conscious  of  his  dependence  on 
God  and  of  his  own  imperfections  and  nothingness,  that  his  own 
gifts  only  remind  him  that  others  must  have  gifts  also,  while  his 
sense  of  his  utter  nothingness  suggests  to  him  that  their  gifts  may 
well  be  superior  to  his  own — higher  in  nature  and  in  degree.  ' 
In  V.  4  the  important  word  is  "look" — in  the  sense  of  keep- 
ing your  eye  upon — as  Paul  elsewhere  says:  "Looking  not  on 
things  seen,  but  on  things  unseen"  (2  Cor.  4:  18).  Keep  your 
attention  suitably  on  others'  excellences  and  upon  your  own 
deficiencies.  Labor  to  estimate  their  good  qualities  at  their  full 
value,  and  your  OAvn  never  above  that  standard.  Labor  to  care 
for  their  interests  as  well  as  your  own,  appreciating  them  up  to 
their  full  importance,  even  as  you  are  wont  to  appreciate  your 

own. This  amounts  to  the  royal  law,    "  Thou  shalt  love  thy 

neighbor  as  thyself." 

5.  Let  this  mind  be  in  you,  which  was  also  in  Christ 
Jesus : 

6.  Who,  being  in  the  form  of  God,  thought  it  not  rob- 
bery to  be  equal  with  God : 

7.  But  made  himself  of  no  reputation,  and  took  upon 
him  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  was  made  in  the  likeness 
of  men : 

8.  And  being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  he  humbled  him- 
self, and  became  obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the 
cross. 

This  passage — one  of  surpassing  interest  and  power — raises 
even  a  higher  standard  of  Christian  condescension  and  humilia- 
tion for  others'  good  than  Paul  had  been  able  to  express  before. 
For  it  exhorts — shall  we  not  rather  say,  commands,  enjoins — the 
same  mind  which  the  Son  of  God  manifested  in  his  incarnation 
and  in  the  extreme  disregard  of  his  own  honor  from  men  and 
even  of  his  apparent  comfort  and  well-being  during  his  earthly 

life. The  whole  passage  should  be  examined  with  great  care, 

both  because  of  the  marvelous  fiicts  which  it  presents,  and  because 
our  authorized  version  of  v.  6  is  by  no  means  accurate. 

One  very  important  word  in  this  passage  is  "yor»i"f — "l)eing 
in  the  form  of  God;  "  "  took  upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant.  ' 
In  applying  this  word  to  the  Son  of  God,  we  must  shut  off  all 
notion  of  what  is  material;  for  God  is  a  Spirit,  and  as  such  can 
have  no  form  at  all  in  the  sense  in  which  matter  always  has 
form,   shape — is  cither  hirge  or   small,  beautiful   or  otherwise. 

*  TUKKl  VO(l)f)0)V  t  fiopcpij 


PHILIPPIANS. CHAP.    II.  129 

This  sense  of  the  word  being  excluded  by  the  very  nature  of  God, 
the  question  returns  : — What  does  it  mean  ?  To  this  I  answer — 
That  which  in  a  spiritual  being  is  most  analogous  to  form  in 
matter,  viz.,  manifested  dignity  and  glory.  Our  conception  of 
what  this  dignity  and  glory  in  God  really  are  may  be  very  im- 
perfect ;  yet  we  have  no  better  words  to  express  the  reality  than 
these.  Whatever  the  Father  was  in  point  of  manifested  dignity 
and  glory,  that  anterior  to  his  incarnation,  was  the  Son  also.  In 
this  respect  he  was  as  God.  But  when  he  "  became  flesh  and 
dwelt  among  us,"  he  became  in  this  respect  a  servant;  he  was 
made  in  the  likeness  of  man;  and  even  among  men,  he  took  not 
the  position  and  rank  of  prince,  monarch ;  but  of  servant. 

In  V.  6  it  is  not  clear  what  the  translators  of  our  version  could 
have  meant  by  ''robbery" — the  only  recognized  sense  of  this 
word  being — the  taking  from  another  by  force  or  fraud  what  of 
right  belongs  to  him.  But  it  does  not  appear  how  there  could  be 
any  taking  aioay  from  God  in  this  case,  nor  how  the  thing  here 
supposed  to  be  taken  away,  viz.,  the  being  equal  tcith  God — could 
be  taken  away  by  either  force  or  fraud,  or  any  analogous  power. 

Turning  from  the  English  version  to  the  original  Greek,  and 

construing  its  words  in  the  light  of  their  connection,  we  seem 
justified  in  explaining  the  Greek  word  for  robbery^  to  mean,  not 
the  act  of  robbing,  but  rather,  a  thing  very  highly  prized,  even  as 
objects  of  booty  usually  are.  Then,  the  being  eqval  with  God 
(the  precise  sense  of  the  Greek)  must  be  construed  in  the  line  of 
the  thought  here,  viz.,  equal  with  God,  not  in  essential  character, 
but  in  manifested  dignity  and  honor — in  the  sense  in  which  the 
Son  was  in  the  form  of  God.  The  sense  of  this  verse  then  will 
be — That  the  Son,  while  in  possession  of  all  the  dignity  and  glory 
of  God,  did  not  account  it  a  matter  of  great  value  to  retain  this 
equality  with  God  in  external  dignity.  The  retaining  of  this  ex- 
ternal rank  and  glory  in  the  heavens  was  not  in  his  eye  what 
objects  of  plunder  are  in  the  eyes  of  robbers ;  but  rather  he  held 
that  manifested  honor  and  glory  to  be  a  thing  he  could,  for  a  time 
at  least,  forego — as  Paul  proceeds  to  say. 

What  the  Son  of  God  did  not  think  having  been  said,  Paul 
passes  to  the  affirmative  side  to  say  what  he  did  in  fact  do  :  "  He 
made  himself  of  no  reputation."  But  if  we  would  even  approxi- 
mate toAvard  the  true  sense  through  the  medium  of  this  transla- 
tion, we  must  distinguish  very  broadly  between  reputation  and 
real  character,  for  the  Son  did  by  no  means  make  himself  of  no 
character,  did  not  in  the  least  impair  the  ineffiible  perfection  of 
his  moral  nature;  but  he  did  voluntarily  disrobe  himself  of  his 
manifested  dignity  and  honor  as  he  wore  them  in  the  heavens. 
The  Greek  word,  which  is  literally  he  "  emptied  himself,"  needs 
the  same  careful  qualification,  applying  it  to  external  honor,  and 
not  at  all  to  internal  and  real  qualities  of  character. 

Yet  further:  "lie  took  i\\Q  form  of  a  servant" — "form"  being 
used  as  before  in  the  sense  of  external  state  or  condition.     He 

*  apTzayfiuv 


130  THILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    II. 

appeared  before  men  as  supremely  a  servant — "he  came  not  to 
be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister;"  i.  e.,  to  serve,  to  do  precisely 
the  work  of  a  servant.  Leaving  behind  him  all  the  insignia  of 
rank  and  honor,  he  accepted  poverty  for  his  surroundings ;  the 
poor  of  earth  for  his  people — his  relatives  after  the  flesh ;  a  man- 
ger for  his  birthplace ;  a  life  of  toil  for  subsistence ;  homeless, 
with  never  a  place  of  his  own  to  lay  his  head: — all  this  for  his 
earthly  lot.  So  was  he  "made  in  the  likeness  of  men;" — more 
literally  it  should  be,  he  became  like  common  men,  the  verb  hav- 
ing legitimately  the  sense  of  become,  and  the  choice  of  the  term 
for  "  man"  indicating,  not  the  dignity  of  the  hero,  but  the  dust- 
origin  of  human  flesh — a  merely  common  mortal, 

"Being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man" — this  word  "  fashion,"  how- 
ever, not  in  our  technical  sense,  but  in  the  sense  of  his  bearing; 
the  way  he  bore  himself;  the  general  aspect  he  assumed.  This 
was  wholly  that  of  a  man.  No  angel  from  heaven  could  have 
detected  in  his  personal  appearance  aught  of  the  celestial  dignity 
which,  through  all  the  cycles  of  their  existence,  they  had  seen 
him  wear  on  the  throne  of  the  heavens  above. 

"  He  humbled  himself" — put  on  the  aspect  and  bearing  of  hu- 
mility which  the  Scriptures  exhort  all  his  followers  to  wear;  for 
this  word  is  of  the  same  family  with  that  so  often  used  for  Chris- 
tian humility:  * — "and  became  obedient,"  even  to  the  extent  of 
dying  for  the  world  he  came  to  save ;  a  death  of  blended  agony 
and  shame — that  of  crucifixion. 

Such  in  detail  is  Paul's  description  of  the  wonderful  incarna- 
tion of  the  Son  of  God  in  human  flesh.  The  fact  of  incarnation 
is  of  itself  intensely  and  supremely  wonderful.  That  the  Son  of 
God  should  become  flesh  at  all,  should  bring  himself  into  this 
mysterious  yet  most  significant  affinity  and  relationship  with  our 
frail  humanity,  and  become  a  brother  to  the  race  he  came  to  save 
— what  a  marvel  in  the  eyes  of  the  angels  must  this  great  fact 
appear!  What  shall  we  say  of  its  condescension,  of  its  humilia- 
tion, of  its  laying  aside  of  dignity  and  glory,  most  deservedly 
held,  most  honorably  worn  before  all  the  hierarchies  of  heaven? 
As  to  this,  what  can  we  do  but  admire  ?  What  response  to  this 
befits  us  but  to  adore  and  to  praise  ? 

]f  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God  into  human  form  and  re- 
lationship be  of  itself  so  wonderful,  so  illustrative  of  condescen- 
sion and  humiliation  and  of  love  for  the  guilty  and  the  lost,  what 
shall  we  say  of  such  an  iiicaritatiou,  of  becoming  such  a  servant, 
of  descending  so  low  upon  the  scale  of  human  conditions  and 
experiences?  What  shall  we  say  of  submitting  to  such  indigni- 
ties, of  bowing  his  sacred  head  to  such  insults,  of  subjecting  his 
human  body  to  such  torture,  and  his  human  soul  to  sufferings 
which  we  have  no  human  experiences  to  measure,  no  faculties  or 
powers  at  all  equal  to  their  comprehension,  much  less  to  their 
endurance  ? — Yet  let  us  not  forget  that  this  voluntary  condescen- 
sion and  humiliation  are  put  here  as  the  model  for  our  imitation : 

*  TaTT£lVO(j)p<JV. 


PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    II.  131 

"  Let  the  same  mind  be  in  you  -which  was  thus  manifested  in 
Christ  Jesus."  For  every  reason,  there  should  be  in  this  example 
not  only  an  illustration  of  what  voluntary  condescension  and  hu- 
mility for  others'  good  signifies,  but  the  motive  force  of  glorious 
example  to  inspire  us  to  its  imitation. 

9.  Wherefore  God  also  hath  highly  exalted  him,  and  given 
him  a  name  which  is  above  every  name : 

10.  That  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should  bow, 
of  things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  earth,  and  things  under  the 
earth ; 

11.  And  that  every  tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ 
is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father. 

God  is  infinitely  pleased  with  this  great  humiliation  and  con- 
descension of  his  Son  for  such  a  purpose,  and  therefore  rewards 
it  with  the  highest  possible  exaltation  and  honor.  "  Hath  exalted 
him  supremely,  and  as  his  reward  (so  the  Greek  word  implies) 
hath  given  him  a  name  above  every  other,  that  at  the  name  of 
Jesus  ' — that  name  given  him  at  his  human  birth  (Matt.  1 :  21) 
signifying  Savior  and  for  ever  suggestive  of  his  whole  work  of 
suffering  and  death  as  the  Savior  of  lost  men. 

"  That  in  this  name  every  knee  should  bow  in  reverent  wor- 
ship." In  this  name  is  the  usual,  not  to  say  necessary  sense  of 
the  original,  referring  (it  would  seem)  to  the  constant  usage  of 
this  phrase  for  prayer  in  his  name.  Here,  however,  the  context 
shows  clearly  that  the  thought  is  not  so  much  of  offering  petition 
as  of  rendering  homage,  for  in  it  all  beings  in  heaven  above,  on 
the  earth,  and  under  the  earth — the  already  dead — are  to  unite. 

It  should  be  said,  however,  that  the  enforced  subjection  of 
rebels — real  subjugation — does  not  appear  to  be  included  here,  for 
this  seems  to  be  voluntary  homage  and  worship,  rendered  in  sin- 
cerity, to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father.  It  goes  against  including 
rebels  toward  God  within  the  class,  those  '^ under  the  earth:" 
(1.)  That  the  phrase  "  in  the  name  of  Christ"  is  suggestive  of  the 
offering  of  prayer  through  him  to  the  Father,  this  phrase  being 
in  constant  use  in  this  sense;  and,  (2.)  That  "under  the  earth' 
never  elsewhere  in  Scripture  designates  the  abode  of  either  rebel 
angels  or  rebel  men.  The  lost  angels  Paul  locates  "in  the  air" 
(Eph.  2:  2  and  6:  12),  and  lost  men  far  "away  from  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Lord  and  the  glory  of  his  power"  (2  Thess.  1 :  9). 

12.  Wherefore,  my  beloved,  as  ye  have  always  obeyed, 
not  as  in  my  presence  only,  but  now  much  more  in  my  ab- 
sence, work  out  your  own  salvation  wuth  fear  and  trembling: 

13.  For  it  is  God  which  worketh  in  you  both  to  will  and 
to  do  of  his  good  pleasure. 

"Always  obeyed" — ichom?  Perhaps  many  readers  suppose 
Paul  intended  to  supply  "myself" — complimenting  them  for 
having  been  obedient  to  his  authority.     It  is  far  more  probable 


132  PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    II. 

that  he  alludes  to  Jesus  as  ''obedient  even  unto  death"  (v.  8),  and 
with  his  eye  on  that  expression  said  :  "  As  ye  have  always  obeyed 
the  Lord,  following,  in  this,  the  example  of  your  Master,  so  now 
I  beseech  you,  work  your  salvation  through  thoroughly,  not  as. in 
my  presence  and  out  of  regard  to  my  feelings  or  personal  and 
present  exhortations ;  but  now  much  more  in  my  absence,  bear- 
ing your  own  sole  responsibilities  all  the  more  because  1  am  ab- 
sent. I  would  therefore  connect  what  he  says  of  his  presence 
■and  of  his  absence,  not  with  their  being  obedient,  but  with  his 
exhortation  to  "work  out  their  own  salvation." 

"With  fear" — /.  e.,  of  failure,  in  a  matter  of  really  infinite 
moment;  and  "with  trembling"  lest  ye  come  short  in  the  end — 
in  a  case  where  the  interests  at  stake  are  simply  infinite. 

Work  ye  because  God  ivorks;  put  forth  your  energies  to  this 
result  because  God  is  putting  forth  his  to  the  same  result.  Our 
translation  follows  the  original  in  using  the  same  verb  (radically 
the  same)  in  both  cases. 

As  God  works  both  toward  your  willing  and  your  doing,  so  put 
ye  forth  your  energy  both  upon  the  voluntary  activities  of  your 

mind,  and  upon  your  executive  acts   as  well. God  does  this 

out  of  his  good  pleasure — in  the  deep  love  of  his  heart;  therefore 
all  the  more  should  ye  work  co-ordinately  with  him  toward  the 
same  result,  that  ye  may  gratify  the  deep  love  of  his  heart,  and 
requite  his  benevolent  efibrts  with  grateful  returns. 

Moreover,  "fear  and  trembling"  are  specially  befitting  in  view 
of  the  sanctity  of  such  a  presence — the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  work- 
ing in  your  souls  unto  holy  purposes  and  endeavors.  Who  with 
a  due  sense  of  a  present  God  acting  within  his  soul  for  such  a 
purpose,  could  work  otherwise  than  "with  fear  and  trembling?" 

14.  Do  all  things  without  miirmurings  and  disputings : 

15.  That  ye  may  be  blameless  and  harmless,  the  sons  of 
God,  without  rebuke,  in  the  midst  of  a  crooked  and  perverse 
nation,  among  whom  ye  shine  as  lights  in  the  world; 

IG.  Holding  forth  the  word  of  life ;  that  I  may  rejoice  in 
the  day  of  Christ,  that  I  have  not  run  in  vain  neither  la- 
bored in  vain. 

"Do  all  things  without  murmurings  and  disputings"  among 
yourselves,  that  so  ye  may  be  blameless  [irreproachable]  and 
harmless  [pure  in  life],  the  real  sons  of  God,  living  out  his 
spirit;  "without  blemish,"  and  so  above  reproach — among  a  very 
wicked  people  before  whom  ye  are  to  shine  as  luminaries — light- 
bearers — in  this  dark  world;  holding  forth  the  light  of  the  word 
of  life,  as  the  luminaries  of  the  sky  shed  forth  their  light.  That 
I  may  have  joy  not  inhni  against  the  day — in  prospect  of  the  day 
of  Christ — the  sense  here  being,  not  that  he  may  have  joy  when 
the  day  shall  have  come,  but  joy  in  the  anticipation  of  its  com- 
ing. This  is  the  joy  of  knowing  that  1  have  not  run  my  Chris- 
tian race  in  vain. 

JJut  what  "day"  is  meant  by  "the  day  of  Christ?" We 


PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.  II.  133 

have  seen  the  same  words  above  (1 :  6,  10),  obviously  in  the  same 

sense  as  here. As  to  the  significance  of  this  phrase,  we  must 

choose  between  Christ's  coming  to  Paul  at  Paul's  death;  and  his 
coming  to  the  whole  world  for  the  resurrection  and  final  judg- 
ment, with  the  preponderance  of  proof  very  much  in  favor  of  the 
former  and  against  the  latter.  For  Paul  knew  that  Jesus,  speak- 
ing of  the  individual  death  of  each  Christian,  had  used  these 
words;  "I  will  come  again  and  receive  you  unto  myself"  (John 
14:  3),  and  Paul  himself  tells  us  in  this  epistle  that  for  him  to 
"depart"  [at  death]  is  "to  be  with  Christ^  The  day  of  his  de- 
parting will  therefore  be  to  him,  in  a  most  emphatic  sense,  "  the 
day  of  Christ."  Moreover  Paul  thinks  of  this  "day  of  Christ" 
as  bringing  him  joy  over  and  in  his  Philippian  converts  if  they 
do  well. And  here  our  decisive  question  is — Will  this  joy  be- 
gin its  grand  realization  at  Paul's  death  or  not  until  the  resurrec- 
tion and  judgment  day?  If  the  latter,  then  Paul's  intermediate 
state  (between  his  OAvn  death  and  the  resurrection)  is  in  his 
thought  essentially  a  blank,  with  no  joy  over  his  converts ;  no  joy 
from  the  fruits  of  his  Christian  labor — till  the  final  resurrection 
and  judgment.  But  most  certainly  this  was  never  his  view  of 
the  case.  His  rich  and  glorious  joy  in  his  converts — "in  the 
day  of  Christ" — begins  at  his  own  death — when  he  departs  and 
is  ''iviih  Christy  This  is  to  him — "the  day  of  Christ," — i.  e., 
the  day  of  Christ /o?-  this  result — viz.,  his  joy  over  their  conver- 
sion under  his  labors. 

17.  Yea,  and  if  I  be  offered  upon  the  sacrifice  and  service 
of  your  faith,  I  joy,  and  rejoice  with  you  all. 

18.  For  the  same  cause  also  do  ye  joy,  and  rejoice  with 
me. 

Though  I  should  be  offered  as  a  sacrifice  by  a  martyr's  death 
because  of  my  gospel  labors  for  yourselves  and  others,  I  shall 
have  joy  in  myself,  and  I  would  fain  hope  a  joy  in  common  with 
you — which  implies  that  they  also  should  rejoice  in  it,  if  such  be 

the  will  of  God. Then,  to  make  the  case  yet  more  distinct,  he 

exhorts  them  also  in  this  supposed  case  to  rejoice,  and  indeed,  to 
rejoice  in  common  with  himself.  In  this  v.  18  the  verbs  should 
be  taken  as  imperatives — not  indicatives — i.  e.,  as  exhorting  them 
to  rejoice,  and  not  as  simply  affirming  that  they  do.  This  is  truly 
estimating  things  as  they  appear  in  the  light— not  of  time  but  of 
eternity.  Paul  is  no  stranger  to  the  anticipated  joys  of  that 
other  world,  to  begin  in  their  glory  immediately  upon  his  death, 
and  he  would  fain  bring  his  Philippian  converts  into  the  same 
hopes  and  anticipations. 

19.  But  I  trust  in  the  Lord  Jesus  to  send  Timotheus 
shortly  unto  you,  that  I  also  may  be  of  good  comfort,  when 
I  know  your  state. 

20.  For  I  have  no  man  like-minded,  who  will  naturally 
care  for  your  state. 


134  PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.  II. 

21.  For  all  seek  their  own,  not  the  things  which  are  Jesus 
Christ's. 

22.  But  ye  know  the  proof  of  him,  that,  as  a  son  with 
the  father,  he  hath  served  with  me  in  the  gospel. 

23.  Him  therefore  I  hope  to  send  presently,  so  soon  as  I 
shall  see  how  it  will  go  with  me. 

24.  But  I  trust  in  the  Lord  that  I  also  myself  shall  come 
shortly. 

Paul  hopes  and  purposes  to  send  Timothy  to  Philippi  soon,  to 
look  into  their  spiritual  life  and  report  back  to  himself  in  prison. 
— His  few  words  in  commendation  of  Timothy  represent  him  as 
eminently  unselfish  and  sincerely  devoted  to  every  interest  of 
Christ's  kingdom.  He  cares  for  their  spiritual  welfare  naturally 
— not  for  pay ;  not  for  his  own  personal  interest,  but  genuinely 
for  Christ.  There  might  be  others  who  professed  to  be  laboring 
for  Christ  in  his  gospel  work,  but  they  were  thinking  of  their 
own  things,  and  not,  like  Timothy,  solely  of  what  pertained  to 
Christ.  But  the  Philippians  had  known  his  fidelity  for  Christ 
and  his  true  devotion  to  Paul  as   a  son  to  his   spiritual  father. 

In  this  description  of  Timothy  there  lies  a  wealth  of  sugges- 
tion— not  to  say  of  instruction  and  rebuke — as  to  the  bottom 
motives  which  underlie  all  genuine  Christian  labor  for  the  souls 
of  men. 

25.  Yet  I  supposed  it  necessary  to  send  to  you  Epaphro- 
ditus,  my  brother,  and  companion  in  labor,  and  fellow-soldier, 
but  your  messenger,  and  he  that  ministered  to  my  wants. 

26.  For  he  longed  after  you  all,  and  was  full  of  heavi- 
ness, because  that  ye  had  heard  that  he  had  been  sick. 

27.  For  indeed  he  was  sick  nigh  unto  death :  but  God  had 
mercy  on  him ;  and  not  on  him  only,  but  on  me  also,  lest  I 
should  have  sorrow  upon  sorrow. 

Here  is  another  of  the  choice  spirits  in  whose  presence  and 

sympathy  Paul  found  abiding  joy. Of  this  Epaphroditus  but 

little  is  known.  Some  critics  identify  him  with  Epaphras  (Col. 
1  :  7  and  4:  12  and  Philemon  v.  23),  but  this  is  very  doubtful — 
the  latter  being  of  Colosse ;  the  former  apparently  of  Philippi. 
He  had  been  sent  with  supplies  from  Philippi  to  Paul  at  Kome, 
and  there  had  been  sick  nigh  to  death.  Of  this  sickness  his 
friends  at  home  had  heard.  Having  in  a  measure  recovered,  he 
was  very  anxious  to  relieve  their  apprehensions  by  returning  to 
them  in  person. 

28.  1  sent  him  therefore  the  more  carefully,  that,  when  ye 
see  him  again,  ye  may  rejoice,  and  that  I  may  be  the  less 
sorrowful. 

29.  R(;ccive  him  thenjforc  in  the  Lord  with  all  gladness; 
and  hold  such  in  reputation: 


PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    III.  135 

80.  Because  for  the  work  of  Christ  he  was  nigh  unto 
death,  not  regarding  his  life,  to  supply  your  lack  of  service 
toward  me. 

This  dear  hrother  had  served  Paul  most  faithfully;  perhaps 
had  exposed  his  health  even  unto  dangerous  sickness  in  his  per- 
sonal attendance  upon  the  apostle.  Now,  therefore,  it  is  with 
special  joy  that  Paul  sends  him  back  to  the  dear  friends  at 
Philippi.  The  warmth  and  wealth  of  personal  affection  manifest 
in  these  verses  is  one  of  the  precious  fruits  of  a  pure  gospel. 


CHAPTER    III. 

Paul  exhorts  to  beware  of  the  Judaizing  ritualists  of  that  age 
(v.  2,  3);  refers  to  himself  as  having  as  much  reason  for  reliance 
on  Pharisaic  forms  as  any  other  man  (v.  4-6),  yet  he  had  re- 
nounced all  such  reliances  utterly  that  he  might  win  Christ  (v.  7, 
8);  shows  what  the  winning  of  Christ  amounts  to  (v.  9-11);  and 
what  his  Christian  aspirations  are  (v.  12-14);  and  exhorts  to  high 
aims  and  endeavors  (v.  15-17);  enforcing  this  appeal  by  reference 
to  the  course  and  the  end  of  many  enemies  of  the  cross  of  Christ 
(v.  18,  19);  in  contrast  with  which  he  sets  forth  the  Christian's 
glorious  hope  (v.  20,  21). 

1.  Finally,  my  brethren,  rejoice  in  the  Lord.  To  Avrite 
the  same  things  to  you,  to  me  indeed  is  not  grievous,  but 
for  you  it  is  safe. 

This  chapter  opens  as  if  it  were  a  supplement  made  up  of  after- 
thoughts ; — a  postscript  to  what  precedes.  It  opens  with  a  call 
to  "  rejoice  in  the  Lord  " — which  had  been  the  strain  of  the  pre- 
vious portion  of  the  epistle,  (See  1:  4,  18  and  2:  17,  18). — "To 
write  the  same  things  "  is  to  reiterate  the  exhortation  to  "rejoice 
in  the  Lord."  This  is  by  no  means  irksome  to  himself,  and  will 
be  safe  for  them — safe  in  its  results,  for  such  repose  and  joy  in 

God  are  never  out  of   order;  never  inappropriate. Take  note 

that  this  call  to  "joy  in  the  Lord,"  was  not  based  on  any  great 
success  in  worldly  schemes — on  any  great  acquisitions  of  wealth, 
or  fame,  or  pleasure ;  but  (strangely  enough  in  a  wordl;^  point  of 
view)  upon  his  own  possible  martyrdom,  and  upon  their  not  im- 
probable perils  and  sufferings  to  be  endured  for  Christ's  sake. 
Jesus  could  make  (and  could  be  trusted  to  make)  these  dangers 
and  perils  "  work  out  for  them  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal 
weight  of  glory"  (2  Cor.  4:   17),  and  in  this,  let  them  rejoice. 


136  PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    III. 

2.  Beware  of  dogs,  beware  of  evil  Avorkers,  beware  of  the 
concision. 

3.  For  we  are  the  circumcision,  which  worship  God  in  the 
spirit,  and  rejoice  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  have  no  confidence 
in  the  flesh. 

That  dangers  and  perils  are  in  Paul's  mind  is  made  plain  here. 
The  chief  persecutions  which  appear  in  Paul's  recorded  history 
were   instigated  by  the  class  of  men  described  here — Pharisaic 

men  of  Judaizing   spirit. To  reach  the  precise   sense  of  the 

word  "  dogs"  (used  figuratively)  we  must  choose  between  Jewish 
usage  and  Oriental.  Under  the  former  it  was  applied  to  all  Gen- 
tiles as  such  (Matt.  15  :  26,  27)  and  was  an  epithet  of  contempt, 
to  represent  outlandish,  ungodly,  unprivileged  people.  Under  the 
Oriental  sense,  dogs  would  represent  whatever  was  unclean,  an- 
noying, disagreeable,  unfit  for  decent  society  (Rev.  22:  15). — It 
seemsnot  unnatural  that  Paul  should  retort  upon  Pharisaic  Jews 
the  very  terms  which  they  apply  to  Gentiles ;  intimating  that  the 
odious  term  far  better  befitted  themselves — men  of  carping,  ugly 

temper,  naturally  given  to  malice  and  envy. "  Evil  workers" 

are  they — the  same  class  perhaps  which  Paul  describes  (2  Cor. 

11 :  13)  as  "false  apostles;"  deceitful  ivorkers." Paul's  word 

"  concision  "  suggests  that  they  gloried  in  circumcision,  but  were 
utterly  far  from  true  circumcision  in  its  only  worthy  sense.  His 
word  implies  that  their  circumcision  w\as  only  a  mutilation  of  the 
flesh,  and  never  at  all  the  putting  away  of  sin,  the  cleansing  (real 
circumcision)  of  the  heart.  Over  against  their  claim,  w^e  (Paul 
says)  are  the  real  circumcision,  the  only  men  legitimately  circum- 
cised in  the  scriptural  sense ;  we  who  worship  God  in  the  spirit 
(not  in  the  flesh  only);  who  rejoice  in  Christ  Jesus  (not  in  the 
ritualities  of  Judaism),  and  have  no  confidence  whatever  ^  in  a 
religion  which  reaches  not  beyond  the  flesh — a  mere  asceticism. 

4.  Though  I  might  also  have  confidence  in  the  flesh.  If 
any  other  man  thinketh  that  he  hath  whereof  he  might  trust 
in  the  flesh,  I  more: 

5.  Circumcised  the  eighth  day,  of  the  stock  of  Israel,  of 
the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews;  as  touch- 
ing the  law,  a  Pharisee ; 

6.  Concerning  zeal,  persecuting  the  church  ;  touching  the 
righteousness  which  is  in  the  law,  blameless. 

If  Pharisaic  formalism  and  asceticism  could  ever  be  worth  any 
thing,  no  man  can  have  more  of  it  than  I  had.  As  Isaac  was,  so 
w\as  I  circumcised  on  the  best  day  for  the  merit  of  the  rite;  in 
my  pedigree  I  was  a  full  Israelite;  in  all  that  makes  a  good  Phar- 
isee, faultless,  even  to  the  extent  of  persecuting  the  church. — 
Paul  put  himself  on  record  in  much  the  same  way  before  the 
J(iwisii  council  (Acts  22:  3,  4)  and  l)eforc  Fcstua  and  Agrippa 
(Acts  20  :  4,  5).     (See  also  Gal.  1 :   14.) 


PIIILIPPIANS. — CHAP.   III.  137 

7.  But  what  things  were  gain  to  me,  those  I  counted  loss 
for  Christ. 

8.  Yea  doubtless,  and  I  count  all  things  but  loss  for  the 
excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus  my  Lord :  for 
whom  I  have  suffered  the  loss  of  all  things,  and  do  count 
them  but  dung,  that  I  may  win  Christ, 

9.  And  be  found  in  him,  not  having  mine  own  righteous- 
ness, Avhich  is  of  the  law,  but  that  which  is  through  the 
faith  of  Christ,  the  righteousness  which  is  of  God  by 
faith : 

His  Pharisaism  was  gain  to  him  in  the  worldly  sense,  for  it 
brought  him  honor  and  reputation  before  his  countrymen,  and  in 
their  notion  it  accumulated  a  marvelous  wealth  of  merit  as 
toward  God — meritorious  righteousness;  the  glory  of  good  deeds 
— a  long  catalogue  of  works  of  righteousness  passed  to  his  credit 
in  the  account  books  of  heaven.  But  all  this  accumulation,  Paul 
came  to  look  upon  as  utterly  worthless — a  simple  abomination 
before  God — to  be  discarded  therefore  at  once  and  forever  for  the 
sake  of  Christ.  All  that  righteousness  and  Christ  too,  he  could  not 
have  by  any  possibility;  all  that  must  be  renounced  entirely  and 
forever,  if  he  would  have  Christ;  so  he  bade  it  away;  cast  it  from 
him  as  worthless;  and  gladly  took  Christ  in  the  place  of  it  all.  All 
that  Pharisaic  righteousness  was  in  his  esteem  but  "filthy  rags" 
(Isa.  64:  6) — to  be  cast  off  therefore,  to  make  place  for  the  white 

robes  of  Christ's  own  providing  (Rev.  19:  8). Doubtless  I  am 

counting  all  things  whatsoever  to  be  only  loss  when  weighed  against 
the  excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ.  Strong  words  are  these 
— the  surpassing  excellence  of  this  knowledge  of  Christ — this 
knowing  him  as  my  Lord ;  not  as  Jesus  (Savior)  only,  but  as 
Lord  and  King  to  whom  I  consecrate  my  life;  for  whom  I  have 
lost  all  and  count  all  these  lost  things  but  the  merest  refuse  and 
vileness,  if  only  I  may  win  Christ,  and  for  the  purpose  of  win- 
ning him. "And  be  found  in  him" — a  phrase  peculiarly  ex- 
pressive of  the  Christian  state  and  life,  in  which  the  emphatic 
words  are  "  in  him/'  the  being  in  Christ  representing  the  new 
sphere  of  his  very  being,  the  new  life  of  his  soul,  his  new  rela- 
tions to  Christ,  such  as  no  other  words  can  express  better.  He 
lives  in  Christ;  finds  all  hope,  peace,  and  joy  in  him  alone;  trusts 
Christ's  blood  for  pardon  and  acceptance  before  God;  draws  spir- 
itual strength  from  Jesus  only.  These  wonderful  relations  to 
Christ,  so  tersely  expressed  by  the  words  "in  Christ,"  Paul  ex- 
pands not  infrequently  (e.  g.,  Gal.  2:  20,  Eph.  2:  5-10),  as  also 
here,  for  this  whole  passage  (v.  9-11)  is  really  but  an  expansion 

and  explication  of  the  sense  of  these  pregnant  words. "  Not 

having  mine  own  righteousness  "  which  as  a  Pharisee  I  supposed 
came  of  observing  the  law ;  but  a  sort  of  righteousness  far  other 
than  that — one  which  comes  through  faith  in  Christ,  a  righteous- 
ness of  God's  own  providing,  and  which  we  have  upon  condition 


138  PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    III. 

of  fjxith —  vpon  faith''  being  the  exact  sense  of  the  Greek 
words. 

The  reader  may  notice  that  the  old  ri,c;hteousness  which  Paul 
discards  has  two  descriptive  points;  {a.)  It  was  his  own:  {b.)  It 
came  of  the  hiw :  but  the  new  which  he  embraces  has  three  de- 
scriptive points  antithetic  to  those  two:  {a.)  It  is  through  faith, 
not  through  works  of  merit:  (6.)  It  is  through  "the  faith  of 
Christ" — through  believing  in  him:  (c.)  It  is  of  God  upon  the 
believer — originating  from  God,  and  therefore  surely  approved 
and  indorsed  by  him. 

10.  That  I  may  know  him,  and  the  powder  of  his  resur- 
rection, and  the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings,  being  made  con- 
formable unto  his  death; 

11.  If  by  any  means  I  might  attain  unto  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead. 

Still  expanding  and  explaining  what  he  sought  and  found  in 
Christ,  he  proceeds:  "  That  I  may  know  him  " — know  him  intel- 
lectually, apprehending  all  the  facts  of  his  person,  character,  and 
work;  and  may  know  him  also  in  my  experience  of  his  power  to 
save;  know  him  as  my  Friend  and  Brother;  my  Redeemer  and 
my  Lord;  know  him  as  to  all  that  he  is  to  me  and  all  that  he 
will  be  to  me  forever.  Truly  here  is  a  marvelous  wealth  of 
knowledge,  the  preciousness  and  value  of  which  to  human  souls 
have  absolutely  no  limit. 

That  I  may  know  "  the  power  of  his  resurrection."  The  sense 
of  these  words  may  be  reached  in  one  (perhaps  both)  of  these 
two  ways,  viz.,  {a.)  The  power  which  raised  him  from  the  dead, 
often  ascribed  to  the  Spirit  of  God  and  thought  of  as  analogous 
to  that  which  raises  souls  dead  in  sin  to  their  new  life  through 
regeneration  (see  Eph.  1:  19,  20  and  notes  there);  or,  (6.)  The 
power  which  after  his  resurrection  and  as  a  resalt  of  it,  Christ 
wields,  unto  the  spiritual  life  of  his  people.  "  If  I  go  not  away, 
the  Comforter  will  not  come;  but  if  I  depart,  Twill  send  him 
unto  you"  (.Tohn  14:  7):  "All  power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven 

and  on  earth"  (Matt.  28:   18). As  suggested  above,  it  is  sup- 

posable  that  neither  of  these  expositions  of  what  is  meant  by  the 
power  of  Christ's  resurrection  need  be  pressed  so  as  to  exclude 
the  other.     Both  seem  to  be  in  harmony  not  only  with  the  facts, 

but  with  Paul's  known   conception  of  the  facts. This  power 

makes  Jesus  fully  competent,  first  to  justify  believers,  placing 
them  right  before  God ;  and  then  to  glorify  them  in  the  great 
day,  no  less. 

"That  I  may  know  the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings" — may  ex- 
perience in  some  points,  at  least,  like  sufferings  myself,  for  the 
same  great  ends,  l)eing  counted  worthy  to  suffer  for  his  name; 
not  forgetting  that  if  we  suffer  with  him,  we  shall  also  reign  with 
him;  "  If  we  confess  him  before  men,  h(>  will  confess  us  before 
the  angels  of  God."      This  doctrine  was  familiar  to  all  the  apos- 


PHILIPPIANS. CHAP.   III.  139 

ties,  and  supremely  inspiring.  (See  Rom.  8:  17):  "If  so  be  we 
suffer  with  him,  that  we  may  be  glorified  together;"  and  2  Tim. 
2:  11,  12:  "A  faithful  saying;  for  if  we  be  dead  with  him,  we 
shall  also  live  with  him;  if  we  suffer,  we  shall  also  reign  with 
him;"  and  2  Cor.  4:  10:  "Always  bearing  about  in  the  body  the 
dying  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  the  life  of  Jesus  might  be  manifest 
in  our  body;  "  and  1  Peter  4:  13:  "Rejoice,  inasmuch  as  ye  are 
partakers  of  Christ's  sufferings,  that  when  his  glory  shall  be  re- 
vealed, ye  may  be  glad  also  with  exceeding  joy." 

"Being  made  conformable  unto  his  death"  seems  to  mean 
being  persecuted  and  even  martyred  as  he  was,  if  by  any  means 
I  may,  even  at  such  cost,  reach  the  glorious  resurrection. 

Some  critics  would  give  to  these  words  (v.  11)  the  very  specific 
sense — "  the  first  resurrection."  There  is  nothing  here,  however, 
which  suggests  the  first  as  contrasted  with  a  second.  This  idea  is 
therefore  mihev  put  into  the  words  by  the  critics  than  found  in 
them.  Of  course  the  scope  of  the  passage  bears  our  thought  to 
the  glorious  resurrection — that  resurrection  which  shall  include 
the  righteous  dead.  Paul  has  no  occasion  to  allude  to  the 
wicked,  nor  to  say  whether  they  are  to  be  raised  then  or  ever. 
As  to  them  he  certainly  does  not  deny,  neither  was  it  to  his  pur- 
pose to  affirm. 

12.  Not  as  though  I  had  already  attained,  either  were  al- 
ready perfect :  but  I  follow  after,  if  that  I  may  apprehend 
that  for  which  also  I  am  apprehended  of  Christ  Jesus. 

13.  Brethren,  I  count  not  myself  to  have  apprehended: 
but  this  one  thing  I  do,  forgetting  those  things  which  are  be- 
hind, and  reaching  forth  unto  those  things  which  are  before, 

14.  I  press  toward  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  the  high  call- 
ing of  God  in  Christ  Jesus. 

"Not  that  I  have  already  attained  what?  What  is  the  thing 
not  yet  attained  ?  The  repetition  of  the  word  "  attain,"  first  used 
in  V.  11  and  then  again  here,  very  naturally  suggests  that  Paul 
means — not  yet  attained  to  the  resurrection  from  the  dead.  But 
this  would  have  been  quite  too  obvious  to  need  saying.  Besides, 
our  authoi'ized  version  misleads  us  by  this  repetition  of  the  word 
"  attain."  The  English  reader  naturally  supposes  that  Paul  uses 
the  same  word  here  as  in  v.  11;  but  this  is  not  at  all  the  case. 
The  word  in  v.  11  "^  signifies — to  come  to  ;  to  arrive  at,  as  e.  g., 
Eph.  4:  13,  "Till  we  all  come  unto  a  perfect  man,"  etc.  But  in 
V.  12  we  have  a  very  different  yet  quite  common  verb  f  which 
means,  to  take  hold  of;  and  without  doubt,  in  the  somewhat  fig- 
urative sense  o^  grasping  the  prize  of  the  victor  in  the  race  ;  i.  e., 
in  this  word  Paul  already  has  his  mind  upon  the  illustration 
which  he  proceeds  to  expand  more  fully  throughout  verses  12-14 
— a  competitor  for  the  prize  who  has  it  full  in  his  eye,  and  for- 

■'•'■  KaTavrao)  t  e^nf^ov 


140  PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    III. 

getting  all  behind,  presses  forward  with  mightiest  effort  to  grasp 
it  at  the  end.  He  means  therefore  that  he  is  still  on  the  race- 
course— part  of  his  ground  gone  over,  yet  not  all ;  more  is  still 
before  him;  the  glorious  prize  glitters  and  gleams  full  in  his 
view ;  but  his  hand  is  not  yet  upon  it.  His  whole  soul  is  swell- 
ing with  aspirations  to  reach  it;  he  dare  not  slacken  his  speed  to 
look  back  upon  the  space  passed  over,  but  bends  himself  with  ut- 
most endeavor  to  reach  his  goal  and  win  his  prize.  Christ  Jesus 
has  laid  hold  of  him  and  put  him  upon  this  race-course  that  he 
may  win  the  prize  of  immortality  ;  and  now  this  thought  inspires 
him  to  fresh  zeal  to  lay  hold  of  that  prize  for  which  Jesus  has 
laid  hold  of  him,  virtually  saying:  "There  is  your  prize  ;  win  it, 
and  be  mine  forever!" 

"Not  as  though  I  were  already  perfect,"  we  read  (v.  12).  In 
determining  the  precise  sense  of  this  verb  (made  perfect)*  we  must 
choose  between  (a)  the  strictly  ethical  sense  of  personal  perfec- 
tion of  moral  character;  and  (&)  the  sense  suggested  by  the  fig- 
ure of  the  race-course  and  its  prize — viz.,  reaching  the  consum- 
mation of  his  life-conflict.  This  will  give  substantially  the  same 
sense  as  the  word  "  attained,"  both  being  antithetic  to  the  "  fol- 
lowing after"  that  he  may  lay  hold  of  that  prize  for  which  he 
has  been  laid  hold  of  by  Christ  Jesus.  The  things  not  yet  fully 
attained  stand  over  against  the  things  now  in  hand,  in  the  course 
of  progress  and  endeavor.  This  interprets  the  words — "were  al- 
ready perfect" — in  harmony  with  Paul's  course  of  thought,  and 
so  fulfills  one  main  condition  of  true  interpretation.  The  analogy 
of  the  race-course,  competing  for  the  prize,  is  constantly  present 
to  Paul's  thought  throughout  these  verses  (12-14).  But  in  order 
to  reach  the  full  and  precise  sense  of  the  passage,  we  need  to  an- 
alyze this  figure  and  ask  more  definitely— i^Vhat  are  those  ele- 
ments of  the  Christian  life  which  Paul  would  illustrate  by  this 
running  upon  the  race-course? 

If  we  could  put  this  question  to  Paul  himself,  I  judge  he  would 
answer,  substantially,  there  are  two  lines  of  effort — (a)  Christian 
self-culture  : — (b)  Christian  labor  for  the  salvation  of  other  men. 
I  have  work  to  do  (1)  upon  my  own  heart — my  own  moral  nature ; 
and  (2)  for  the  souls  of  my  fellow-men.  The  former  has  no  limit 
— no  place  to  stop,  short  of  moral  perfection;  the  latter  no  limit 
slu)rt  of  death — none  short  of  being  called  away  from  Ihe  labors 
of  earth.  Paul's  doctrine  of  Christian  work  included  these  two 
grand  departments,  and  can  by  no  means  omit  either  till  its  nat- 
ural limit  is  reached.  True,  his  analogy  of  Christian  life  as  a 
race  for  the  prize,  naturally  gives  prominence  to  the  Christian's 
final  reward  at  and  after  death  ;  yet  it  is  possil)le  to  push  this  an- 
alogy too  far.  Construed  very  strictly,  the  attaining  of  the  prize, 
and  the  being  already  perfect  would  mean — the  being  croWned 
victor  and  receiving  the  prize  of  immortal  blessedness.  Yet  it 
was  scarcely  necessary  for  Paul  to  say  that  he  was  not  yet  in 
heaven — that  the  prize  of  immortal  glory  had  not  yet  been  con- 


PHILIPPIANS. CHAP.    III.  141 

ferred  by  the  Supreme  Judge  of  the  contest.  Hence  we  seem 
compelled  to  construe  his  "  not  having  attained"^  and  •'  not  being 
perfected  "  to  mean  that  he  had  yet  more  Christian  work  to  do, 
and  therefore  was  still  bending  himself  to  the  yet  unfinished 
Christian  work  of  life.  How  much  of  this  yet  unfinished  work, 
as  it  stood  then  before  his  mind,  lay  in  the  line  of  inner  self-cul- 
ture, and  how  much  in  the  line  of  outward  labor  for  others,  he 
has  not  fully  defined.  We  can  not  go  beyond  the  fair  interpreta- 
tion of  his  words. 

The  "mark"  (v.  13)  is  the  goal  at  the  end  of  this  race-course. 
There  stood  full  in  his  view  the  prize  of  God's  calling  from  above 
in  Christ  Jesus.  Through  Jesus  Christ  God  had  sent  down  his 
call — the  heavenly  invitation — to  his  servant  Paul  to  struggle  for 
this  immortal  prize ;  and  Paul  had  joyfully  accepted  it. 

15.  Let  us  therefore,  as  many  as  be  perfect,  be  thus 
minded ;  and  if  in  any  thing  ye  be  otherwise  minded,  God 
shall  reveal  even  this  unto  you. 

16.  Nevertheless,  whereto  we  have  already  attained,  let 
us  walk  by  the  same  rule,  let  us  mind  the  same  thing. 

Now  Paul  applies  his  own  example,  as  above  given,  to  indicate 
the  present  duty  of  his  Philippian  brethren.  The  word  "  perfect " 
here  ^  is  not  the  verb  used  above  (v.  12),  but  is  the  adjective  of 
kindred  meaning,  from  the  same  root.  Its  significance  should  be 
reached  by  examining  Paul's  own  usage  of  this  very  word;  e.  g., 
1  Cor.  2  :  6  and  14  :  20  and  Eph.  4 :  1 3  and  also  Heb.  5  :  14.  "  We 
speak  wisdom  among  them  that  are  perfect " — of  fully  developed 
mind  and  character.  •'  Brethren,  be  not  children  in  understand- 
ing ;  m  malice,  be  ye  children,  but  in  understanding,  be  ye  per- 
fect "  [in  the  authorized  version  "  men  "] — manifestly  in  the  sense 
of  adults  in  mind.  "  Till  we  all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith 
and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God  unto  2, perfect  man  " — 
the  fully  rounded  and  developed  Christian  character.  "  Strong 
meat"  (solid  food)  is  for  the  perfect  (Eng.  "  those  of  full  age  ")— 
adults.  These  passages  may  suffice  to  indicate  proximately  Paul's 
usage  of  this  word  "  perfect."  Yet  perhaps  we  must  say,  it  leaves 
the  question  still  open  whether  he  thinks  of  attainments  in  Chris- 
tian knowledge,  or  in  Christian  character,  or  in  both.  .  He  says — 
as  many  of  you  as  consider  yourselves  fairly  mature  in  Christian 
character  and  doctrine  (a  point  he  purposely  leaves  to  each  man's 
view  of  himself),  be  ye  of  this  mind;  take  this  view  of  your  Christian 
life-work;  and  if  in  any  respect,  ye  have  views  somewhat  varying 
from  these,  God  will,  I  trust,  reveal  this  to  you  as  the  only  just 
view  of  Christian  life.  However,  in  so  far  as  we  have  made 
Christian  attainments,  let  us  walk  by  this  same  rule,  never  rest- 
ing at  the  point  already  gained,  but  still  pressing  on  to  higher 
attainments.  In  v.  16  the  better  textual  authorities  omit  the 
words—"  rule,  let  us  mind  the  same  thing." 

yr  *  TeTitlOl. 


142  PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.  III. 

17.  Brethren,  be  followers  together  of  me,  and  mark  them 
■which  walk  so  as  ye  have  us  for  an  ensample. 

18.  (For  many  walk,  of  whom  I  have  told  you  often,  and 
now  tell  you  even  weeping,  that  they  are  the  enemies  of  the 
cross  of  Christ: 

19.  Whose  end  is  destruction,  whose  God  is  their  belly, 
and  whose  glory  is  in  their  shame,  who  mind  earthly  things.) 

He  urges  them  all  unitedly  to  follow  his  example,  and  also  tlie 
example  of  those  of  like  spirit  and  life — referring  probably  to 
his  well  known  friends  and  fellow-laborers,  of  whom  Timothy  and 

Epaphroditus  have  been  named. One  reason  for  pressing  this 

was  that  many  (who  would  be  thought  Christians)  live  fir  other- 
wise— "  enemies    of  the   cross    of  Christ." He    draws    their 

character  and  life  clearly,  even  vividly: — Thoroughly  sen- 
sual, and  so  depraved  as  even  to  glory  in  their  shame;  their 
hearts  worldly  to  the  core;  caring  for,    "minding"  only  earthly 

things. — Their  end  shall  be  as  their  works — only  destruction. 

The  tender  spirit  of  the  apostle  can  not  speak  of  them  but  with 

tears. It  may  be  noted  here  that  the  drift  of  Paul's  thought 

is  upon  practical  living  rather  than  upon  theoretical  knowledge. 
The  "minding"  of  earthly  things  is  the  heart's  love,  the  cur- 
rent of  its  passions,  appetites,  aspirations. 

20.  For  our  conversation  is  in  heaven  ;  from  whence  also 
we  look  for  the  Savior,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ : 

21.  Who  shall  change  our  vile  body,  that  it  may  be  fash- 
ioned like  unto  his  glorious  body,  according  to  the  working 
whereby  he  is  able  even  to  subdue  all  things  unto  himself. 

Such  living — a  heart  so  base,  so  earthly  and  sensual — by  no 
means  becomes  us,  "/or"  ("gar")  "  our  citizenship  is  in  heaven;" 
we  have  no  right  to  live  that  low^,  sensual  life,  inasmuch  as  we 
have  been  adopted  into  God's  family  and  honored  with  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  citizenship  in  his  kingdom  above.  Ye  Philip- 
pians  who  bear  and  who  well  appreciate  the  honors  of  your  Ro- 
man citizenship,  ought  to  comprehend  this  far  higher  honor  of 

being  citizens,  not  of  Rome,  but  of  heaven. Not  only  arc  we 

already  citizens  of  that  realm,  but  we  shall  in  due  time  be  borne 
thither;  for  we  are  looking  for  the  Savior,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
to  come  from  thence  to  change  this  body  of  our  humble  estate 
into  a  like  form  with  his  glorious  body  (as  seen  in  vision  by 
John,  Rev.  1:  13-16)  through  that  energy  which  is  all  powerful 
to  subj(M;t  all  things  to  himself This  means  that  the  resur- 
rection bodies  of  Christ's  saints  will  be  like  his  own — made  so 
by  his  omni|)otent  energy;  and  that  this  transformation  will  oc- 
cur when  he  shall  come  visiJdy  from  heaven  to  raise  the  dead 
and  clothe  his  saints  with  this  glory,  as  yet  to  us  inconceivable. 

Surely  this  should  be  an  inspiration  to  all  Christ's  children  to 
rise  entirely  above  the  grovelling  sensuality  which  Raul's  burn- 
ing words  so  vividly  portrayed. 


PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    IV.  143 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Concluding  exhortations ;  to  stand  fast  in  the  Lord  (v.  1);  to 
be  of  one  mind  (v.  2,  3)  ;  to  rejoice  in  the  Lord  and  to  exercise 
self-control  (v.  4,  5) ;  to  keep  their  hearts  free  from  anxious  care 
by  means  of  prayerful  trust  in  God,  that  so  God's  peace  may 
keep  their  hearts  in  Christ  Jesus  (v.  6,  7) ;  to  study  all  most 
noble  things  and  follow  the  apostle's  example  (v.  8,  9).  Grateful 
allusions  to  their  kindness  in  supplying  his  personal  wants;  his 
own  experience  in  this  regard  (v.  10-14) ;  special  reference  to 
their  early  remembrance  of  his  wants  (v.  15-17),  and  also  of 
their  recent  contribution  (v.  18) — which  suggests  the  assurance 
that  God  will  supply  their  need  not  less  than  they  had  his — for 
all  which,  let  glory  be  to  God  the  Father  (v.  19,  20) ;  closing  sal- 
utations (v.  21). 

1.  Therefore,  my  brethren  dearly  beloved  and  longed  for, 
i"y  Py  ^iid  crown,  so  stand  fast  in  the  Lord,  my  dearly  be- 
loved. 

"  Beloved  and  longed  for" — not  entirely  synonymous,  the  latter 

expressing  his  longing   desire    to   see    them  yet  again. My 

"joy"  now;  my  "crown"  in  the  glorious   future  when  j^erson- 

ally  I  shall  "enter  into  thejoy  of  my  Lord." Paul's  meaning 

in  this  use  of  the  term  "  crown,"  he  expands  more  fully,  1  Thess. 
2:  19,  20:  "For  what  is  our  hope,  or  joy,  or  crown  of  rejoicing? 
Are  not  even  ye,  in  the  presence  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  at 
his  coming?  For  ye  are  our  glory  and  joy.''  Perhaps  this  is  one 
element  in  that  "  prize  of  his  high  calling  from  God  in  Christ 
Jesus,"  toward  which  with  utmost  might  he  is  pressing  onward. 
He  would  win  souls  to  Christ,  deeply  conscious  that  all  such 
winning  will  be  toward  and  unto  his  own  eternal  joy.  "Stead- 
fast; "  hold  your  ground  in  the  military  sense,  never  falling  back 
before  your  enemies,  but  standing  firmly  for  truth  and  righteous- 
ness— all  for  Christ  your  Lord. 

2.  I  beseech  Euodias,  and  beseech  Syntyche,  that  they 
be  of  the  same  mmd  in  the  Lord. 

3.  And  I  entreat  thee  also,  true  yokefellow,  help  those 
women  which  labored  with  me  in  the  gospel,  with  Clement 
also,  and  luith  other  my  fellow-laborers,  whose  names  are  in 
the  book  of  life. 

"Euodias"  should  be  spelled  Euodia — the  name  of  a  sister  in 
the  church,  not  of  a  brother.  The  repetition  of  the  word  "  be- 
seech" is  peculiar  and  probably  significant,  implying  that  he  be- 
sought them  individually  and  severally,  as  being  both  in  fault  and 
deserving  this  gentle  rebuke.  In  this  church  at  Philippi,  the 
gospel  made  its  first  conquests  in  a  group  of  devout  and  prayer- 
ful women,  at  that  river-side  place  of  prayer  (Acts  16:  13-15). 


144  PIIILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    IV. 

These  two  sisters  in  the  church,  we  must  suppose,  were  promi- 
nent Christian  laborers,  perhaps  deaconesses  in  office ;  but  un- 
happily had  been  not  altogether  "of  one  accord."  Hence  this 
personal  and  very  emphatic  exhortation — that  they  "be  of  one 
mind,"'  harmonious  in  spirit  and  counsel,  and  not  discordant; — • 
and  all,  "in  the  Lord' — i.  e.,  in  the  love  of  his  dear  name,  be- 
cause of  their  common  relationship  to  their  supreme  Lord  and 
Master.  His  very  name  should  quell  all  party  spirit;  all  per- 
sonal ambitions  and  jealousies,  and  should  bring  their  souls  into 

sweet  accord  and  mutual  love. In  v.  3  our  authorized  version 

makes  the  exhortation  general: — Help  all  those  women  who  la- 
bored with  me  in  the  gospel.  But  Paul's  words  had  specific  ref- 
erence to  the  two  sisters  named  in  v.  2 — the  strict  translation 
being — Help  them  [the  sisters],  inasmuch  as  they  (or  since  they) 
labored  with  me  in  the  gospel. He  then  adds:  "Help  Clem- 
ent also;  "  the  same,  it  is  currently  supposed,  who  subsequently 
became  bishop  of  Rome.  This  supposition  rests  on  the  very 
distinct  testimony  of  Origen,  Eusebius,  Jerome  and  Epiphanius. 

The  expression — 'Whose  names  are  in  the  book  of  life,"  is 

with  good  reason  traced  for  its  origin  to  the  Old  Testament :  Ex. 
32:  32  and  Ps.  69:  28  and  Isa.  4:  3  and  Ezek.  13  :  9  and  Dan. 
12:  1. 

It  is  not  easy,  perhaps  not  possible,  to  identify  this  "true  yoke- 
fellow." The  Philippians  doubtless  knew  the  man  who  had  been 
Paul's  bosom  friend  and  efficient  fellow-laborer  there.  He  may 
have  been  the  senior  bishop  among  those  "bishops  and  deacons' 
of  chapter  1:1. 

4.  Rejoice  in  the  Lord  alway :  and  again  I  say,  Rejoice. 

5.  Let  your  moderation  be  known  unto  all  men.  The 
Lord  is  at  hand. 

'Again  I  will  say"  is  the  exact  translation.  Paul  felt  that  he 
had  good  reason  for  repeating  those  words.  In  such  a  Savior  as 
Jesus — in  such  a  Lord,  so  worthy  to  be  King  and  Lord  of  all, 
ruling  with  so  great  power,  for  ends  so  wise,  and  with  results  so 
glorious,  and  withal  so  sure,  why  should  we  not  "rejoice  alway?" 

"Moderation,"    interpreted  by   its   original   Greek,   suggests 

mildness  of  temper,  gentleness  of  bearing,  that  solf-control  which 
liolds  all  passions  in  su])jcction  to  the  proprieties  of  the  case. 
Whether  there  were  special  reasons  then  and  there  for  this  admo- 
nition, they  knew  doubtless  better  than  we  now  can. 

"The  Lord  is  at  hand,"  ever  near,  always  to  bo  thought  of  as 
near  and  never  afar  off.  This  consideration  should  serve  to  quell 
unhallowed  excitement. 

These  words  have  been  sometimes  construed  to  mean — The 
personal  coming  of  the  Lord  is  nc^ar  in  time.  This  construction 
puts  more  into  them  than  they  legitimately  signify,  and  must  bo 
Hustained,  if  iit  all,  ])y  resorting  to  otlior  ])assag('s  assuiM('<l  to  be 
analogous.  Into  this  discussioji  I  can  not  cMitcr  here,  further  than 
to  say :    We  have  great  moral  force  in  the  words  when  we  inter{)ret 


PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.  IV.  145 

them  as  suggesting  that  the  issues  of  the  eternal  state  are  always 
near  at  hand :  the  Lord  himself  is  always  near — near  as  knowing 
all  there  is  in  us,  all  there  is  about  us,  all  our  thought  and  feel- 
ing, and  especially  all  those  excited  feelings  which  Paul  specially 
exhorts  them  to  moderate  and  control  under  a  sense  of  an  Om- 
niscient Mind  ever  present.  This,  it  seems  to  me,  is  an  exposi- 
tion of  Paul's  thought,  at  once  appropriate  in  itself  and  in  har- 
mony with  the  context,  while  moreover  the  sense  is  legitimately 
found  in  his  words. 

6.  Be  careful  for  nothing ;  but  in  every  thing  by  prayer 
and  supplication  with  thanksgiving  let  your  requests  be  made 
known  unto  God. 

7.  And  the  peace  of  God,  which  passetb  all  understand- 
ing, shall  keep  your  hearts  and  minds  through  Christ  Jesus. 

Paul's  word  here,  "Take  no  care,"  is  the  same  which  our  Lord 
used  so  often  and  so  emphatically  (e.  g.,  Matt.  6:  25,  27,  28,  31, 
34),  translated  there,  "  Take  no  thought,"  in  the  sense,  anxious 
thought.  The  thing  to  do,  over  against  this  thing  not  to  be  done, 
is — Make  your  wants  all  known  to  God  in  continual  prayer  and 
supplication,  not  omitting  thanksgiving  in  grateful  acknowledg- 
ment for  blessings  conferred.  Prayerful  trust  in  God  as  an  over- 
ruling Providence — as  one  who  feeds  the  ravens  and  marks  every 
sparrow's  fall — is  the  legitimate  antidote  for  anxious  care.  Why 
not  ?  Can  any  thing,  good  or  ill,  come  upon  us  without  our 
Father?  Can  any  good  fail  us  if  we  cast  all  our  care  upon  him? 
Shall  we  doubt  either  his  love  for  us,  his  wisdom  to  judge  for  us, 
or  his  power  to  supply  all  our  need? "By  prayer  and  suppli- 
cation '  — the  words  differing  from  each  other  only  as  the  former 
is  more  general,  the  latter  more  specific;  yet  combined,  they  in- 
clude every  sort  and  form  of  prayer,  constant,  definite,  according 
to  your  definite  wants — your  heart  being  always  prayerful,  and 
withal  confiding  and  grateful.  So  shall  that  peace  of  God  which 
surpasses  all  human  thought  keep  your  souls  quiet  and  confiding 
in  Christ  Jesus. 

8.  Finally,  brethren,  w^hatsoever  things  are  true,  whatso- 
ever things  are  honest,  whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatso- 
ever things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  whatso- 
ever things  are  of  good  report ;  if  there  he  any  virtue,  and  if 
there  he  any  praise,  think  on  these  things. 

9.  Those  things,  which  ye  have  both  learned,  and  received, 
and  heard,  and  seen  in  me,  do :  and  the  God  of  peace  shall 
be  with  you. 

This  final  exhortation,  poured  from  his  full,  overflowing  heart, 
assumes  that  they  have  a  sense  of  what  is  true,  honorable  (better 
than  "  honest"),  just  and  pure,  lovely  and  worthy  of  esteem  and 
high  repute;  and  begs  them  to  think  of  all  these  things,  to  ap- 
preciate them,  cultivate  them,  and  to  manifest  them  evermore  in 


146  PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    IV. 

their  life.     His  own  example  he  is  able  in  all  good  conscience  to 
commend  to  their  imitation. 

10.  But  I  rejoiced  in  the  Lord  greatly,  that  now  at  the 
last  your  care  of  me  hath  flourished  again ;  wherein  ye  were 
also  careful,  but  ye  lacked  opportunity. 

11.  Not  that  I  speak  in  respect  of  w^ant;  for  I  have 
learned,  in  whatsoever  state  I  am,  therewith  to  be  content. 

12.  I  know  both  how  to  be  abased,  and  I  know  how  to 
abound :  every-where  and  in  all  things  I  am  instructed  both 
to  be  full  and  to  be  hungry,  both  to  abound  and  to  suffer 
need. 

13.  I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ  which  strengthen- 
eth  me. 

14.  Notwithstanding  ye  have  well  done,  that  ye  did  com- 
municate with  my  affliction. 

The  recent  contribution  for  his  material  wants,  sent  by  hand 
of  Epaphroditus,  is  referred  to  here.  It  had  given  him  great  joy 
in  the  Lord.  The  word  here  used,  "flourish  again,"  is  specially 
significant  of  beauty  and  fitness :  Ye  have  blossomed  out  again, 
as  if  for  a  new  set  of  flowers  and  fruitage.  Ye  had  it  in  your 
heart  before,  but  lacked  opportunity.  Very  delicately  Paul  re- 
marks that  he  does  not  allude  to  tliis  subject  on  account  of  his 
own  personal  wants,  for  he  has  learned  to  endure  privations 
cheerfully,  or  to  enjoy  good  things  from  his  friends  gratefully. 
The  clause,  "every-where  and  in  all  things,"  seems  more  pre- 
cisely to  mean,  in  every  individual  thing,  and  in  all  things  in 
general.  I  have  learned  in  my  experience  how  to  live  with  either 
litdc  or  much,  in  poverty  or  in  ample  abundance.  In  v.  13  the 
word  ''do"  is  scarcely  comprehensive  enough  to  suggest  the  full 
sense  of  Paul's  words.  Rather:  I  am  equal  to  all  things — am 
strong  for  all  things — through  Christ  who  gives  to  me  all  strength. 
It  covers  not  doing  only,  but  suffering  as  well;  any  thing  the 
Lord's  providence  may  bring  upon  him.  Yet  though  such  is  my 
experience  and  such  my  history,  it  is  well  that  ye  sent  me  those 
supplies. 

15.  Now  ye  Philippians  know  also,  that  in  the  beginning 
of  the  gospel,  when  I  departed  from  Macedonia,  no  church 
communicated  with  me  as  concerning  giving  and  receiving, 
but  ye  only. 

10.  For  even  in  Thessalonica  ye  sent  once  and  again  unto 
my  necessity. 

17.  Not  because  I  desire  a  gift;  but  I  desire  fruit  that 
may  abound  to  your  account. 

Tlie  event  here  referred  to  is  proltably  the  point  of  liis  liistory, 
given  Acts  17:  14,  wh(ui  hostile  .lews  from  'JMicssalonica  camo 
upon  him  at  Ilerca,  and  it  was  thought  prudent  for  Paul  to  with- 


PHILIPPIANS. — CHAP.    IV.  147 

draw — ultimately  to  Athens.  This  was  soon  after  he  had  planted 
the  church  at  Philippi.  They  had  sent  relief  to  him  when  in 
Thessalonica.  With  exquisite  delicacy  he  intimates  that  his  in- 
terest in  these  benefactions  from  them  did  not  arise  chiefly  from 
his  personal  enjoyment  of  the  gift,  but  much  more  from  the  ben- 
efit they  must  receive  from  the  giving.  "  It  is  more  blessed  to 
give  than  to  receive;"  and  this  fruit,  abounding  to  their  account, 
Paul  felt  that  he  might  legitimately  rejoice  in,  and  might  not  im- 
properly refer  to  in  this  connection. 

18.  But  I  have  all,  and  abound :  I  am  full,  having  re- 
ceived of  Epaphroditus  the  things  which  were  sent  from  you, 
an  odor  of  a  sweet  smell,  a  sacrifice  acceptable,  well  pleasing 
to  God. 

19.  But  my  God  shall  supply  all  your  need  according  to 
his  riches  in  glory  by  Christ  Jesus. 

20.  Now  unto  God  and  our  Father  be  glory  for  ever  and 
ever.     Amen. 

My  wants  are  amply  supplied;  your  gifts  were  not  only  most 
acceptable  to  me,  but  most  fragrant,  even  as  the  odors  of  sweet 
incense,  before  God.  As  ye  have  supplied  my  wants  munifi- 
cently, I  am  sure  my  God  whom  I  serve  will  supply  all  your  need. 
Whether  this  "all  need"  included  earthly  good,  and  if  so,  to  what 
extent,  is  not  made  entirely  clear.  Two  considerations  lie  against 
giving  much  prominence  to  earthly  good:  (a.)  That  it  held  no 
high  place  in  Paul's  thought  or  esteem;  (b.)  That  the  words  "in 
glory  '  may  be  construed  to  indicate  the  sphere  in  which  tliis 
glorious  supply  of  all  their  utmost  need  is  to  lie.  Assuming 
Paul  to  mean  that,  in  the  glorious  riches  of  his  mercy  in  Christ, 
God  will  supply  all  their  need  in  the  world  of  glory,  we  give  a 
very  just  exposition  of  his  words,  and  have  a  truth  taught  here  at 
once  pertinent  and  glorious.  A  doxology — Glory  to  God  for  such 
a  hope! — is  most  befitting  here. 

21.  Salute  every  saint  in  Christ  Jesus.  The  brethren 
which  are  with  me  greet  you. 

22.  All  the  saints  salute  you,  chiefly  they  that  are  of 
Caesar's  household. 

23.  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you  all. 
Amen. 

"  Every  saint,"  with  no  exception. 

The  allusion  to  "those  of  Cassar's  household"  implies  that  the 
gospel  had  reached  even  the  inmates  of  the  royal  palace.  Paul's 
place  of  confinement  may  have  been  contiguous — a  circumstance 
which  may  have  been  overruled  of  God  to  this  early  introduction 
of  the  gospel  into  the  royal  household.  He  had  previously  re- 
ferred to  the  fact  that  his  "bonds  in  Christ"  (on  him  for  Christ's 
sake)  "had  become  known  in  all  the  palace"  (1 :  13). 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  COLOSSIANS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Preliminary  to  the   intelligent,  profitable  study  of  this 
epistle  are  the  questions : — 
I.  Where  was  Colosse  ? 
II.  By  whom,  when,  and  where  was  this  epistle  written  ? 

III.  Occasion  and  objects  of  this  writing ; 

IV.  The  analogy  between  this  epistle  and  that  to  the 
Ephesians  ;  coupled  with  the  special  use  to  be  made  of  it. 

I.  Colosse,  anciently  a  very  considerable  city  in  the  prov- 
ince of  Phrygia,  Asia  Minor,  long  since  in  ruins,  lay  on  the 
river  Lycus,  near  its  confluence  with  the  Meander ;  Avas  fif- 
teen miles  east  of  Laodicea,  and  the  same  distance  from 
Hierapolis,  both  of  which  are  named  in  this  epistle  (4:  18). 

The  province  of  Phrygia  was  somewhat  extensively  trav- 
ersed by  Paul  in  his  missionary  journeys  twice  (Acts  16:  6 
and  18:  23),  yet  he  seems  not  to  have  made  the  personal 
acquaintance  of  the  people  of  Colosse  nor  even  of  Laodicea 
(Col.  2:  1).  Scripture  history  has  not  said  definitely  who 
first  planted  the  gospel  in  Colosse  nor  when  ;  but  this  epis- 
tle shows  that  Epaphras  was  of  that  city  (4 :  12)  and  had 
been  "  for  them  a  faithful  minister  of  Christ "  (1 :  7),  through 
whom  Paul  had  been  definitely  apprised  of  their  condition. 

II.  No  sensible  critic  has  ever  disputed  the  authorship 
of  Paul.  There  is  no  reasonable  ground  for  doubt  that  he 
wrote  it  during  his  first  imprisonment  at  Rome,  very  nearly 
at  the  same  time  with  that  to  the  Ephesians,  and  considera- 
bly earlier  than  that  to  the  Philippiaus — this  later  date  for 
the  epistle  to  tlie  Philippiaus  being  indicated  by  things  which 
suggest  a  more  stringent  severity  of  confinement  and  appa- 
rently a  near  approaching  crisis  in  his  case.  ^lorcover,  the 
epistle  to  Philemon  was  apparently  sent  at  the  same  time  by 
the  hand  of  Onesimus,  both  these  brethren  as  well  as  Epa- 
phras having  been  residents  of  Colosse  (Col.  4 :  7-9,  12  and 

(148) 


INTRODUCTION.  149 

Philemon  v.  10-17). The  date  of  this  epistle  is  assigned 

to  the  early  part  of  A.  D.  62. 

III.  The  occasion  and  object  of  this  letter  may  be  gathered 
from  the  letter  itself.  Through  Epaphras,  a  pastor  of  that 
church,  Paul  had  heard  what,  on  the  one  hand,  moved  his 
loving  spirit  to  great  prayer  in  their  behalf;  and  on  the  other 
hand  caused  him  not  a  Httle  anxious  solicitude  lest  they  might 
be  beguiled  into  false  views  of  Christ  and  of  the  Christian 
scheme.  It  seems  quite  plain  that  the  mass  of  that  church 
were  still  steadfast  in  their  Christian  faith  (2  :  5)  ;  yet  equally 
plain  that  pernicious  doctrines  were  broached  among  them, 
involving  real  peril  to  the  purity  of  both  their  faith  and  their 
practice.  The  elements  of  these  pernicious  doctrines  were  a 
compound:  (a.)  Jewish  Ritualism;  (6.)  Asceticism;  (c.) 
Angel-worship  and  angel-mediatorship ;  (d.)  Sustained  appa- 
rently by  more  or  less  pretensions  to  philosophy — doubtless 
of  the  sort  ''  falsely  so  called."  To  these  features  we  shall 
need  to  give  attention  as  we  meet  them  in  the  epistle. 

It  is  to  be  specially  noticed  that  Paul  opposes  these  false 
notions,  not  mainly  by  direct  assault  and  such  discussion  as 
might  supposably  demolish  them  one  by  one ;  but  rather  by 
setting  forth  prominently  the  great  fundamental  truths  of 
the  Christian  system.  As  in  all  practical  points,  those  in- 
cipient, insidious  errors  disparaged  the  person  of  Christ  and 
involved,  to  say  the  least,  exceedingly  imperfect  views  of 
his  supremacy,  Paul  began  at  the  bottom  by  setting  forth 
the  real  and  perfect  divinity  of  the  eternal  Son  of  God ;  his 
Creatorship;  his  absolute  Headship  to  the  church,  and  the 
infinite  fullness  which  dwelt  forever  in  him,  and  which  there- 
fore superseded  all  occasion  for  such  professed  helps  or  aids 
to  the  Christian  life  as  this  new  teaching  proposed.  Christ 
supreme,  Christ  all-sufficient,  Christ  all  and  in  all — the  only 
Savior  and  the  only  Lord ;  the  Author  of  all  pardon  for  sin  ; 
the  Fountain  of  all  spiritual  Hfe  and  power  to  his  people ; 
the  infinite  Lord  whose  supremacy  could  never  admit  any 
intermediate  power,  angelic  or  otherwise :— such  are  the 
points  put  strongly,  to  the  utter  subversion  of  that  new  and 
other  gospel,  and  to  the  rooting  and  grounding  of  all  real 

converts  in  the  faith  as  it  is  in  Jesus. It  is  this  masterly 

method  for  demolishing  error  by  putting  forth  those  grand 
points  of  truth  which  themselves  suffice  to  explode  it,  that 
has  given  this  epistle  its  enduring  and  priceless  value.  It 
stands  before  the  ages — the  everlasting  refutation  of  every 
sclieme  of  error  which  lives  and  can  live  only  by  dishonor- 


150  INTRODUCTION. 

ing  Christ,  by  practically  denying  his  infinite  supremacy, 
and  disparaging  the  absolute  fullness  and  sufficiency  of  his 
salvation. 

Comparing  this  with  other  epistles  of  Paul  in  the  points  of 
doctrinal  occasion  and  object,  it  appears  that  the  mischiefs  in 
the  churches  of  Galatia,  though  in  some  points  similar,  had 
spread  more  widely,  rooted  more  deeply,  and  become  more 
immediately  perilous  to  their  Christian  faith  and  life.  Paul's 
rebukes  in  that  epistle  as  compared  with  this  are  sharp,  de- 
cisive, enforced  with  his  utmost  emphasis  and  energy.  Here 
they  are  precautionary,  forewarning;  and  as  said  above,  so 
entirely  based  on  broad  views  of  the  true  doctrine  which 
must  itself  supplant  the  incipient  errors,  that  they  have  a 

})ermanent  value  of  transcendent  importance. The  Ephe- 

sian  church  was  manifestly  threatened  with  errors  somewhat 
akin  to  these  which  appeared  in  Colosse — of  which  Paul  had 
some  apprehensions — prophetic  or  otherwise — when  he  met 
the  elders  at  Miletus  (Acts  20:  29,  30).  These  he  had  yet 
further  occasion  to  forefend  at  a  later  period  by  the  mission 
of  Timothy  to  that  church  (1  Eps.  1  :  3,  4).  But  in  our 
epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  the  traces  of  Oriental  errors  are  less 
distinct. 

Remarkably  the  churches  of  the  West,  especially  at  Phi- 
lippi  and  Thessalonica,  seem  to  have  almost  entirely  escaped 
the  contagion  of  these  errors.  The  purity  of  those  churches 
was  a  perpetual  comfort  and  joy  to  our  Great  Apostle,  bear- 
ing so  heroically  and  with  such  matchless  sympathy  *'  the 
care  of  all  the  churches"  (2  Cor.  11  :  28). 

IV.  In  many  points  this  epistle  to  Colosse  has  striking 
analogies  with  that  to  Ei)hesus — analogies  somewhat  appar- 
ent in  the  earlier  and  doctrinal  portion,  but  much  more  so 
in  the  later  and  practical.  The  same  breadth  and  depth  of 
thought  in  his  treatment  of  the  great  doctrinal  themes  in 
hand  is  apparent  in  both  ;  the  same  deep  sense  of  the  inti- 
mate relations  of  sound  doctrine  to  honest  and  worthy  living; 
tlie  same  grand  views  of  what  constitutes  a  true  Christian 
life ;  the  same  moral  duties,  incident  to  most  diversified 
social  relations : — all  these  stand  out  with  similar  promi- 
nen(;e  and  with  like  exquisite  beauty  in  both  these  great 
epistles.  It  is  a  fair  presumption,  resting  not  merely  on 
these  points  (^f  general  similarity,  but  on  the  yet  closer  re- 
semblance in  terms  and  phrases,  that  they  were  written 
iiearly  at  the  same  time,  wiiile  yet  the  leading  thoughts  and 
phrases  were  fresh  for  each.     Perhaps  the  internal  evidence 


INTRODUCTION.  151 

drawn  from  comparing  the  two,  favors  tlie  theory  that 
"Colossians"  was  written  first,  so  that  some  of  its  points 
were  somewhat  more  fully  expanded  in  the  subsequently 
written  epistle  to  the  Ephesians. 

A  paragraph  near  the  close  of  this  epistle  (4 :  16)  gives 
us  a  pleasant  fact,  bearing  upon  the  practical  use  to  be  made 
of  Paul's  epistles,  viz.,  that,  having  been  read  to  the  assem- 
bled brethren  of  the  church  particularly  addressed,  they 
were  loaned  for  similar  use  in  neighboring  churches.  He 
directs  that  after  they  had  read  this,  they  cause  it  to  be  read 
also  in  the  church  at  Laodicea  (fifteen  miles  distant)  ;  and 
that  in  like  manner  they  secure  the  hearing  of  a  letter  he 

had  written   to  the    church   at    Laodicea. Ages  before 

printing  was  known,  the  reading  of  manuscript  letters  from 
the  great  apostle  was  an  event  in  the  history  of  any  church. 
Let  them  therefore  mutually  lend  and  borrow  these  precious 
documents,  and  so  turn  them  to  their  best  and  utmost  ac- 
count.  It  was  by  such  means  that  these  inspired  docu- 
ments made  their  way  not  only  into  the  general  knowledge 
of  the  churches,  but  into  established  credit  as  the  genuine 
writings  of  apostolic  men. 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  COLOSSIANS. 


CHAPTER  I. 


After  the  nsnal  salutations  (v.  1,  2)  Paul  speaks  of  his 
gratitude  and  prayer  to  God  in  their  behalf  ever  since  he  first 
heard  of  their  faith  and  love  for  all  the  saints,  this  being  the 
natural  fruit  of  gospel  truth  (v.  3-8) ;  speaks  more  in  detail  of 
the  blessings  which  he  implores  in  their  behalf  (v.  9-11);  of  the 
ground  for  thanksgiving  to  God  (v.  12-14) ;  then  affirms  the  real 
divinity  of  the  Son  of  God;  his  supremacy;  his  universal  cre- 
atorship  (v.  15-17);  his  headship  as  to  the  church  (v.  18);  the  full- 
ness that  dwelt  in  him  to  the  result  of  accomplishing  perfectly 
the  great  work  of  human  redemption  and  the  reconciling  of  all 
things  unto  God  (v.  18-20);  and  of  this  reconciliation  in  their 
particular  case  (v.  21-23) ;  speaks  of  his  own  sufferings  for  the 
church  as  related  to  Christ's  (v.  24) ;  of  his  ministry  to  the  Gen- 
tiles, assigned  him  as  his  gospel  work  (v.  25-29). 

1.  Paul,  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  by  the  will  of  God, 
and  Timotheus  our  brother, 

2.  To  the  saints  and  faithful  brethren  in  Christ  which  are 
at  Colosse :  Grace  be  unto  you,  and  peace,  from  God  our 
Father  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Timothy  was  with  Paul  at  Rome.  Apparently  his  name  in 
this  salutation  signifies  only  his  warm  sympathy  with  Paul  in 
his  care  of  all  the  churches,  and  in  his  prayers  and  thanksgivings 
in  their  behalf  His  presence  appears  only  in  these  relations. 
The  "we"  (Paul  and  Timothy)  runs  through  the  portion  which 
speaks  of  their  common  prayers,  thanksgivings,  and  preaching 
labors  (v.  3,  4,  9,  10,  28),  but  not  elsewhere. 

3.  We  give  thanks  to  God  and  the  Father  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  praying  always  for  you, 

4.  Since  we  heard  of  your  faith  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  of 
the  love  which  ye  have  to  all  the  saints, 

5.  For  the  hope  which  is  laid  up  for  you  in  heaven, 
whereof  ye  heard  before  in  the  word  of  the  truth  of  the 
gospel ; 

(152) 


COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.  I.  153 

6.  Which  is  come  unto  you,  as  it  is  in  all  the  world ;  and 
bringeth  forth  fruit,  as  it  doth  also  in  you,  since  the  day  ye 
heard  of  it,  and  knew  the  grace  of  God  in  truth : 

7.  As  ye  also  learned  of  Epaphras  our  dear  fellow-serv- 
ant, who  is  for  you  a  faithful  minister  of  Christ ; 

8.  Who  also  declared  unto  us  your  love  in  the  Spirit. 

In  the  first  clause  of  v.  5  the  words,  "for  the  hope,"  etc.,  fiiil 
to  indicate  clearly  the  relations  of  this  hope.  ''Because  of" 
translates  the  original  better  than  "for"— the  sense  being  that 
the  love  which  they  have  for  all  the  saints  is  quickened  specially 
by  the  glorious  hope  laid  up  for  them  in  heaven;  i.  e.,  this  love 
was  in  its  nature  Christian,  and  was  quickened  intensely  by  their 

mutual  hope  of  a  common,  blessed  immortality. Of  this  they 

had  heard  in  all  that  true  gospel  preaching  which  had  gone  forth 
widely,  bearing  fruit  and  growing  elsewhere  as  among  them- 
selves. 

"The  grace  of  God  known  in  truth"—!  e.,  truthfully,  accord- 
ing to  its  reality. Epaphras,  then  Paul's  beloved  fellow-servant, 

but  formerljr  their  gospel  minister,  had  testified  to  the  apostle  of 
their  "  love  in  the  Spirit"— love  that  flourished  in  the  atmosphere 
of  the  Divine  Spirit — only  in  and  under  his  inspirations. 

9.  For  this  cause  we  also,  since  the  day  we  heard  it,  do 
not  cease  to  pray  for  you,  and  to  desire  that  ye  might  be 
filled  with  the  knowledge  of  his  will  in  all  wisdom  and 
spiritual  understandiug; 

10.^  That  ye  might  walk  worthy  of  the  Lord  unto  all 
pleasing,  being  fruitful  in  every  good  work,  and  increasiug 
in  the  knowledge  of  God ; 

11.  Strengthened  with  all  might,  according  to  his  glorious 
power,  unto  all  patience  and  long-suffering  with  joyfulness ; 

These  are  the  points  made  in  his  continual  prayer  in  their 
belialf,  and  serve  to  show  what  the  Christian  life  truly  should  be 
— full  of  the  knowledge  of  his  will ;  a  life  worthy  oY  the  Lord 
and  pleasing  him  in  all  points;  evermore  girded  with  spiritual 
strength,  according  to  the  measure  of  his  glorious  power  to  help ; 
strength  moreover  that  will  avail  us  to  endure  all  labors  and  all 

trials  with  joy. If  this  puts  the   standard   high,    it  equally 

shows  the  help  of  God's  grace  and  strength  to  be  great,  unto  the 
attainment  of  this  high  standard.  The  labor  to  be  done,  and  the 
strength  proffered  to  help  in  the  labor,  adjust  themselves  to  each 
other.     If  God  asks  much,  he  also  promises  to  give  much. 

12.  Giving  thanks  unto  the  Father,  which  hath  made  us 
meet  to  be  partakers  of  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in 
light : 

13.  AVho  hath  delivered  us  from  the  power  of  darkness, 
and  hath  translated  ns  into  the  kimrdom  of  his  dear  Son : 


154  COLOSSIANS. — CHAr.  I. 

14.  In  wliom  we  have  redemption  through  his  Wood,  even 
the  forgiveness  of  sins: 

To  the  Father's  love  it  must  be  ascribed  uUimatcly  that  men 
are  new-born  to  holiness  and  made  meet,  fit,  to  share  in  the  in- 
heritance of  the  saints  in  the  light — the  bliss  of  heaven.  This 
"light'  stands  over  against  the  realm  of  darkness  from  which 
his  grace  delivers.  Marvelously  does  God  pluck  his  people  out 
of  the  jaws  of  death  and  translate  them  into  the  kingdom  of  his 
beloved  Son — here  called  "the  Son  of  his  love" — in  the  sense, 
perhaps,  not  merely  of  being  his  well-beloved  Son,  but  of  mani- 
festing  the   Father's  love  in  coming  down  from  heaven   on  no 

errand  but  of  love,  for  no  work  but  one  of  love. "  In  whom 

we  have  ihe  redemption,"  the  well  known  redemption  which  is 
through  his  blood,  and  which  brings  with  it  as  its  first  and  chief 
blessfng,  the  forgiveness  of  sin.  This,  Paul  brings  to  view  hero 
as  the  great,  the  central,  crowning  work  wrought  by  Christ.  By 
this  redemption  it  is  that  we  are  saved  from  the  power  of  dark- 
ness and  death,  and  transferred  into  the  kingdom  of  God's  beloved 
Son. 

15.  Who  is  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,  the  first-born 
of  every  creature : 

16.  For  by  him  were  all  things  created, that  are  in  heaven, 
and  that  are  in  earth,  visible  and  invisible,  whether  they  be 
thrones,  or  dominions,  or  principalities,  or  powers  :  all  things 
were  created  by  him,  and  for  him: 

17.  And  he  is  before  all  things,  and  by  him  all  things 
consist : 

The  subject  treated  here  is  at  once  profoundly  deep  and  of  sur- 
passing importance — the  true  nature  and  relations  of  the  Son  of 
God  (the  "Logos"  of  John),  as  he  was  before  his  incarnation. 
"  Who  is  " — is  evermore  and  is  by  nature,  "  the  image  of  the  in- 
visible God ;  "  not  an  image,  one  among  many  that  are  supposa- 
ble,  but  the  image — the  only  one.  Tlie  Greek  article  is  to  be  as- 
sumed here  idiomatically,  after  the  verb  of  existence,  and  is  es- 
sential to  express  the  exact  thought. "  Image,"  in  its  funda- 
mental sense,  is  that  which  truly  represents  something  else,  the 
copy  of  it,  its  truthful  manifestation.  In  this  sense  the  Son  is 
the  image  of  the  Father.  I  see  no  ground  to  question  that  the 
popuhir  use  of  this  phrase — "  a  son  the  very  image  of  his  father  " 
— gives  the  true  sense  here.  The  word  "invisible,"  said  of  God, 
assumes  not  only  that  no  eye  hath  ever  seen  his  form,  or  ever  can ; 
but  that  he  l^ecomes  in  a  sense  visible,  manifest,  through  his  Son. 
As  Jesus  himself  said:  "He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  tlio 
Father."  No  material  form  is  to  be  thought  of,  yet  the  Son  is  a 
real  manifestation  of  what  else  in  the  Infinite  God,  would  have 
been  to  us  invisible  and  unknown.  The  same  doctrine  on  this 
point  appears  elsewhere;  e.  c/.,  "Who,  ])eing  the  brightness '| 
[effulgence]  "  of  his  glory  and  the  very  image  of  his  substance" 


COLOSSI ANS — CHAP.  I.  155 

(Heb.  1 :  3)  :— "Who,  being  in  the  form  of  God,"  did  not  persist- 
ently retain  his  equality  with  God  in  glory  ;  but  emptied  himself 
{i.  e.,  of  his  visible,  manifested  glory).     (Phil.  2:  6,  7.) 

Ellicott  says — "  Christian  antiquity  has  ever  regarded  the  ex- 
pression "the  image  of  God"  as  denoting  the  Eternal  Son's  per- 
fect equality  with  the  Father  in  respect  to  his  substance,  nature, 
and  eternity  ' — i.  e.,  as  being  the  Father's  image  in  all  things 
save  that  the  Father  is  unbegotten  and  holds  in  himself  a  Father- 
hood, corresponding  to  which  the  Logos  held  as  to  the  Father  a 
Sonship.*  But  these  words,  though  perhaps  the  best  possible  for 
their  purpose,  are  but  a  feeble  attempt  to  set  forth  the  profound 
mysteries  that  lie  in  the  being  of  the  Infinite  God. 

"The  first-born  of  every  creature."  The  term  "  first-born"  ad- 
mits three  possible  senses: — (a.)  Priority  of  birth ;  the  first  of 
several  sons — its  primary  meaning.  (6.)  Supremacy  ;  superior  dig- 
nity or  power — a  secondary  meaning,  resulting  from  the  ancient 
Jewish  (perhaps  Oriental)  usage  of  giving  special  prerogatives  to 
the  first-born  son — "the  birthright."  (c.)  Priority  in  point  of 
existence,  applied  to  one  to  afiirm  his  existence  before  any  thing 
else  existed,  yet  without  implying  that  his  existence  had  a  begin- 
ning analogous  to  theirs.  The  two  last(6.)  and  (c.)may  suppos- 
ably  be  combined  in  the  same  usage.  The  New  Testament  has 
examples  of  (a.)  (Matt.  1  :  25  and  Luke  2 :  7  and  Heb.  11 :  28); 
also  of  (/;.)  (Heb.  11  :  23) :  "  The  church  of  the  first-born  "—who 
perhaps  were  angels,  certainly  beings  of  high  rank,  yet  any  refer- 
ence to  priority  in  existence  is  doutotful.  See  also  Rom.  8  :  29 : 
— "  Whom  he  foreknew,  he  predetermined  to  be  conformed  to  the 
image  of  his  Son,  that  he  (the  Son)  might  be  the  first-born  among 
many  brethren  " — said  with  no  reference  to  prior  birth,  or  even 
to  priority  of  existence ;  but  involving  supremacy,  headship 
among  the  many  who  bear  his  spiritual  image.  Under  this  head 
we  may  include  the  phrase  twice  occurring,  "The  first-born  of 
[or  from]  the  dead"  (Col.  1  :  18  and  Rev.  1:  5) — which  means 
more  than  priority  of  resurrection — even  that  He  is  the  Author 
and  potential  cause  of  the  resurrection  of  his  people.  The  pas- 
sage (Heb.  1 :  6) — "  When  he  bringeth  his  first-begotten  into  the 
world  he  saith — '  Let  all  the  angels  of  God  worship  him,'  "  may 
possibly  refer  to  his  human  birth,  yet  not  certainly,  or  at  least, 
not  exclusively ;  for  there  may  be  a  reference  to  the  Old  Tes- 
tament prediction — "  I  will  make  him  my  first-born  ;  higher  than 
the  kings  of  the  earth  "  (Psalm  89 :  27). 

Excepting  the  passage  in  hand,  this  list  exhausts  the  cases  of 
usage  in  the  New  Testament.  Aided  by  the  light  they  give  and 
by  our  context,  let  us  seek  the  true  sense  of  "  first-born  '  in  this 
passage. 

The  sense  (a.)  must  be  rejected  because  He  certainly  is  not 
classed  here  among  other  creatures,  only  being  the  first  among 

*  This  assumes  that  the  relation  of  Sonship  is  eternal,  and  is 
not  merely  the  result  of  the  incarnation — an  assumption  which  to 
say  the  least  admits  of  grave  doubt. 


156  COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.  I. 

them  to  be  brought  into  being.  The  entire  drift  of  the  con- 
text forbids  this  construction.  For  he  is  the  "  image  of  God;  " 
and  for  every  reason  God  must  be  the  Great  Uncreated ;  and  the 
Son  could  not  be  in  his  image  if  really  he  lacks  this  cardinal  el- 
ement of  the  Father's  nature  and  being.  Moreover,  "  the  first- 
born One  "  is  declared  to  be  universal  Creator,  and  this  affirmation 
is  made  exceedingly  strong  and  all-comprehensive,  indicating  that 
Paul  designed  to  foreclose  the  supposition  that  this  first-born 
could  himself  be  one  of  the  created  beings.  This  primary  sense 
{a.)  must  therefore  be  promptly  rejected. 

The  second  sense  {h.)  is  manifestly  involved  here,  though  not 
to  the  exclusion  of  the  third  (c).  This  first-born  bears  absolute 
supremacy  ;  prerogatives  than  which  there  can  be  none  higher ; 
a  birthright  comprehensive  of  all  honor  and  all  powder.  So  the 
context  purposely  and  most  abundantly  shoAvs.  There  is  also  in- 
cluded the  idea  of  priority  in  time  as  well  as  in  rank.  The  ele- 
ment of  time  is  probably  included  in  the  word  "  first-born."  It 
is  so  important  in  the  writer's  view  that  he  makes  it  a  special  af- 
firmation (v.  17) — "  Ho  is  before  all  things.^'  The  same  truth  ia 
implied  in  his  universal  Creatorship.  The  Maker  must  exist  he- 
fore  the  things  he  makes.  In  this  view  of  the  sense  of  the  word 
"  first-born,"  we  must  rest. 

"  The  first-born  of  every  creature''  or  as  some  prefer — of  the 
whole  creation — might  be  translated — First-born  as  to  every  thing 
created — not  in  a  sense  which  includes  him  among  created  per- 
sons or  things,  but,  as  shown  above,  in  a  sense  which  puts  him 
before  and  above  them  all. 

In  V.  16  the  word  "  for"  is  important  since  it  shows  that  the 
facts  affirmed  in  this  verse  come  in  as  the  ground  or  reason  of 
what  is  declared  in  v.  15.  The  Son  is  not  only  before  but  infin- 
itely above  all  else  that  exists  (the  Father  excepted)  because  he 
created  them  all.  The  enumeration,  the  reader  will  notice,  is 
very  specific  and  comprehensive: — first,  "all  things;"  then  by 
their  locality — things  in  heaven;  things  in  earth:— then  by  their 
nature  as  spiritual  or  as  material — "  things  visible  and  things  in- 
visible:" then  as  to  their  rank — all  the  greatest,  noblest,  most 
exalted  beings  in  the  universe,  and  of  course  by  implication,  all 
inferior  orders  and  creatures  as  well.  Let  it  also  be  noted  that 
our  English  translation — "  by  him  "  (beginning  of  v.  16)  is  not 
precisely  accurate,  for  the  Greek  preposition  is  (en)  in — in  him 
were  all  things  created.  This  is  Paul's  favorite  preposition,  and 
though  it  may  seem  slightly  transcendental,  yet  does  it  not  sug- 
gest "that  in  Paul's  thought,  all  created  things  were  potentially  in 
tlic  Infinite  Creator  before  they  became  actual  by  being  born  into 
a,  real  existence?  All  lay  un'thin  him  as  to  power  and  as  to  plan, 
bofore  the  creative  fiat — before  "he  spake  and  it  was;"  before 
"he  commanded,  and  it  stood"  forth  in  actual  being.  In  the  last 
clause  of  this  v.  20  two  other  prepositions  are  used,  viz.,  "by" 
and  "for;"  created  />//  him  as  tlic  author;  for  h'un  as  the 
final  end  for  which  creatures  were  made.     AVc  must  notice  also 


COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.    I.  157 

that  the  very  same  words  ("  by "  and  "  for  ")  are  used  of  God 
(Horn.  11:  36) — a  passage  which,  though  it  suggests  no  distinc- 
tion between  the  Father  and  the  Son,  yet  does  not  specially  indi- 
cate the  Son,  and  therefore  seems  to  justify  our  reference  of  the 
words  to  the  Father  : — "  Of  him,  and  through  him  and  to  him  are 
all  things — to  whom  be  glory  forever."  This  is  one  of  the 
methods  in  which  the  Scriptures  incidentally  assume  the  divine 
equality  of  Father  and  Son.  The  creation  of  all  things  is  as- 
cribed to  each  in  precisely  the  same  terms, 

"By  him  all  things  consist"  (v.  17) — the  word  "consist,"  how- 
ever, is  nearly  obsolete  as  to  the  sense  given  it  here — which  is 
quite  foreign  from  consistence  as  applied  to  matter,  and  from 
consistency,  used  for  propriety  of  conduct.  The  Latin  suggests 
the  true  sense — stand  together — stand  and  are  sustained  in  their 
standing,  in  their  order  and  their  functions.  The  writer  to  the 
Hebrews  has  the  sentiment — "  Upholding  all  things  by  his  pow- 
erful mandate"  (1:  3).  Paul  at  Athens  (Acts  17:"28)  expressed 
the  same:  "In  him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being;"  and 
Peter  (2  Eps.  3 :  5)  has  the  same  verb  to  indicate  the  processes 
of  this  world's  creation.     (See  notes  on  the  passage.) 

In  view  of  all  that  Paul  has  said  here  of  the  Son  as  "  the  im- 
age of  the  invisible  God,"  as  the  "  first-born  "  and  as  the  uni- 
versal Creator,  some  reader  may  ask — What  is  the  inner,  essential 
distinction  between  the  Father  and  the  Son?  Are  we  to  think 
of  the  Son  (the  Logos  of  John)  as  in  any  sense  begotten,  pro- 
duced, of  the  Father — i.  e.,  as  dependent  on  the  Father  for  his 
being?  If  not,  how  can  these  descriptive  names  be  appropriate? 
And  if  so,  how  can  we  conceive  of  the  Son  as  really  equal  to  the 
Father?  How  can  a  being  who  owes  his  existence  to  another  be 
equal  to  the  Great  Uncreated,  Uncaused,  who  owes  his  existence 
to  none? 

Pushing  this  inquiry  back  of  the  incarnation  and  treating  it 
as  irrespective  of  that  event  or  fact — if  we  must  meet  this  prob- 
lem— 'What  were  the  distinctive  elements  of  Fatherhood  in  the 
one  case  and  of  Sonship  in  the  other,  as  they  existed  eternally  ? 
I  must  answer — I  do  not  know.     To  me  it  lies  among  the  yet  un- 

revealed  mysteries  of  the  infinite  God. 1  can  suppose,  with 

what  seems  to  me  apparent  reason,  that  there  was  eternally  some 
distinction,  to  us  yet  unrevealed,  which  made  it  appropriate  that 
the  Logos  should  be  selected  to  become  incarnated  in  human 
flesh  and  be  designated  in  human  speech  as  Son  in  reference  to 
the  Father.  What  this  something  is  (or  was),  lies  among  the 
things  yet  unrevealed; — probably  among  things  for  the  full  com- 
prehension of  which,  our  faculties  are  yet  unequal.  There,  I 
judge  it  to  be  our  wisdom  to  leave  it. It  is  far  more  impor- 
tant that  we  stand  by  the  negations  than  push  unwarrantably 
into  affirmations.  Negatively,  let  us  stand  to  the  doctrines — no 
inferiority  of  power,  dignity,  rank;  no  beginning  of  his  existence; 
no  form  of  emanation  or  ideal  production  from  the  Father  so 
that  his  existence  is  really  derived  as  opposed  to  underived,  ab- 


158  COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.   I. 

solute,  eternal.  These  negative  propositions  seem  to  be  essen- 
tially and  necessarily  involved  in  any  just  conception  of  the  Su- 
preme Creator — an  equal,  eternal  Son. 

Paul's  object  in  presenting  these  facts  respecting  the  Son  of 
God  wag  unquestionably  to  counteract  incipient  errors  already 
broached  at  Colosse.  Those  teachers  of  error  were  disparaging 
Jesus  Christ;  dishonoring  his  nature  and  his  work.  It  is  well 
known  that  the  Gnostic  heresy  as  subsequently  developed  more 
fully  by  Cerinthus  and  his  disciples,  "saw  in  Christ  only  a 
mere  man,  upon  whom  at  his  baptism  a  higher  ^on  descended 
and  united  himself,  but  which  left  him  again  after  his  work  of 
redemption  was  completed."  (Olshausen,  p.  180.)  The  very 
first  foreshadowing  of  such  doctrine,  Paul  must  have  deemed  it 
vital  to  the  gospel  scheme — vital  to  the  great  fundamental  truths 
of  Christianity — to  withstand  and  quench. 

18.  And  lie  is  the  head  of  the  body,  the  church:  who  is 
the  beginning,  the  first-born  from  the  dead;  that  in  all 
things  he  might  have  the  preeminence. 

19.  For  it  pleased  the  Father  that  in  him  should  all  full- 
ness dwell ; 

20.  And,  having  made  peace  through  the  blood  of  his 
cross,  by  him  to  reconcile  all  things  unto  himself;  by  him, 
I  say,  w^hether  they  be  things  in  earth,  or  things  in  heaven. 

This  One — this  same  exalted,  divine  Son  of  God,  having  be- 
come incarnate,  is  the  Head  of  the  body  (the  church),  according 
to  the  figure,  frequent  in  Paul,  under  which  the  church  is  com- 
pared to  the  human  body,  and  Christ  is  its  Head.  So  Eph.  4: 
15,  16  and  1:  23;  Rom.  12:  5;  1  Cor.  10:  17.  This  spiritual 
headship  of  Christ  to  the  church — a  relation  most  intensely 
vital  to  all  her  spiritual  life — was  (we  must  assume)  ignored  or 
perhaps  even  rudely  assailed  by  the  new  sect  at  Colosse. 

Christ  is  also  the  beginning* — this  Greek  word  signifyinqiabso- 
lute  supremacy — the  center  and  source  of  ail  power,  and  spe- 
cially, the  source  of  all  spiritual  life  to  the  body  (his  church), 
and  personally  to  every  new-born  soul.  As  he  was  universal 
Creator  of  all  material  worlds  and  of  all  beings,  whether  of  heaven 
or  of  earth,  so  is  he  the  spiritual  Creator  whose  vitalizing  word 
breathes  spiritual  life  into  the  otherwise  spiritually  dead  souls 
of  men — the  same  sense  in  which  the  apostles  speak  of  him  as 

"  the  Prince  of  life"  (Acts  3  :  15). Tlie  new  birth,  a  spiritual 

creation,  is  a  conception  familiar  to  Paul  (2  Cor.  5:  17  and  Gal. 
6:  15). 

Still  accumulatinf^  the  points  of  his  superiority  and  supremacy, 
he  proceeds — "  He  is  the  first-born  from  the  dead" — not  merely 
the  first  to  rise  from  the  grave,  but  the  first  to  rise  as  the  glori- 
ous conqueror  of  di^ath  and  th(!  grave  ;  tlu;  first  who  ever  came  up 
from  thuse  realms  of  death  with  the  majesty  of  a  king  over  that 

*  apxn 


COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.  I.  159 

world — to  die  no  more,  and  to  rule  the  empire  of  the  under-world 
no  less  than  of  all  other  worlds,  for  the  redemption  of  his  people 

and  for  the  glory  of  his  universal  kingdom. Looking  toward 

the  same  supremacy  Paul  elsewhere  speaks  of  the  risen  Christ  as 
"the  first-fruits  of  them  that  slept"  (1  Cor.  15:  25). 

The  ultimate  end  of  all  these  sublime  facts  of  his  life-history 
and  manifold  relations,  is  that  in  all  things  whatever  he  may  be 
chief — first  and  foremost — supreme  above  all. 

With  this  accumulation  of  terms  and  figures  signifying  Christ's 
supremacy,  the  apostle  seems  to  have  reached  the  point  of  con- 
Bummation  beyond  which  no  human  language  or  conception  can 
go.  At  this  point,  therefore,  it  became  important  to  remind  his 
readers  that  this  supremacy  by  no  means  exalts  the  Son  in  any 
respect  above  the  Eternal  Father.  Rather,  it  is  due  to  the  good 
pleasure  of  the  Father  that  all  this  fullness  of  power,  of  dignity, 
of  supremacy  as  to  the  church  and  as  to  the  whole  scheme  of  re- 
demption, is  made  to  dwell  in  Christ. 

In  this  V.  19,  the  English  reader  will  notice  that  the  words 
•'  the  Father,''  are  in  italics — to  indicate,  not  emphasis,  but  the 
omission  of  this  word  in  the  original.  This  omission  is  a  notice- 
able, not  to  say,  a  remarkable  fact.  It  legitimately  raises  the 
question — What  is  the  purposed  subject,  or  nominative,  of  the 
verb  "dwell"? Some  critics — (e.  g.,  Ellicott)  argue  strenu- 
ously that  the  subject  of  the  verb  is  "all  fullness,"  so  that  it 
should  read — "In  whom  all  fullness  was  well  pleased  to  dwell." 
His  reasons  for  this  construction  are  mainly — {a.)  The  fact  that 
the  words,  "The  Father,"  are  not  here,  while  "all  fullness"  is: — 
(6.)  That  it  is  very  harsh  to  make  the  two  infinitive  clauses — "to 
dwell"  and  "  to  reconcile"  (v.  20)  depend  in  the  same  way  upon 
this  verb  with  the  word  "Father"  for  its  subject: — (c.)  That  in 
Col.  2:  9  we  certainly  have  "all  fullness"  the  subject  of  this 
same  verb  "  dwell." 

Over  against  these  considerations  and  abundantly  sustaining 
our  authorized  version,  "The  Father  was  well  pleased  that  all 
fullness  should  dwell  in  Christ,"  stand  the  following  points:  {a.) 
It  is  violently  harsh  to  attribute  to  "all  fullness"  the  "good  pleas- 
ure"— the  benevolent  choice — to  dwell  in  Christ.  (6.)  The  nat- 
ure of  the  case  demands  that  this  dwelling  of  "all  fullness"  in 
Christ  should  be  ascribed  to  the  good  pleasure  of  the  Father, 
(c.)  Finally,  New  Testament  usage  of  these  words  is  entirely 
decisive.  The  noun  "good  pleasure,"  ^  and  the  corresponding 
verb  "  well  pleased,"  f  are  both  in  an  immense  majority  of  cases 
applied  to  the  Father,  and  very  often  to  the  Father  in  reference 
to  the  Son.  This  fact  not  only  settles  the  present  question,  but 
fully  accounts  for  the  omission  of  the  word  '  Father."  The  usage 
is  so  strong,  so  nearly  universal,  as  to  render  it  entirely  un- 
necessary to  write  the  word  "Father."  Observant  readers  of  the 
New  Testament  could  not  possibly  think  of  any  other  subject  to 
the  verb  here  except  "the  Father."  Notice  these  cases:  "This 
*  EvSotiia.  t  £v6oKto). 


160  COLOSSI ANS. — CHAP.  I. 

is  my  beloved  Son  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased,"  said  at  his  bap- 
tism, and  again  at  his  transfiguration.  Other  similar  cases  of  this 
verb  "well  pleased,"  with  God  for  its  subject,  may  be  seen  :  Matt. 
12:  18;  Luke  12:  32;  1  Cor.  1:  21  and  10:  5,  and  Gal.  1 :  15  ; 
Heb.  10:  6,  8,  38,  and  2  Pet.  1  :  17.  In  a  similar  way  the  noun 
"good  pleasure"  is  used  of  God:  Matt.  11:  26,  and  Luke  2:  14 
and  10:  21,  and  Eph.  1 :  5,  9,  and  Phil.  2:  13,  and  2  Thess.  1 :  11. 

Such  an  array  of  cases  of  usage  is  overwhelmingly  decisive. 

Yet  it  may  fitly  be  added  that  in  Paul's  presentation  of  Christ's 
supremacy,  this  is  the  appropriate  place  to  bring  in  his  relations 
to  the  Father,  and  to  say  that  it  was  due  to  Ids  good  pleasure  that 
in  his  Son,  now  become  incarnate,  all  this  fullness  should  dwell. 

Yet  further  it  was  the  Father's  good  pleasure  by  him  to  recon- 
cile all  things — on  earth  and  in  heaven — unto  him,  he  having 
made  peace  by  the  blood  of  his  cross.  That  blood  availed  for 
the  pardon  of  the  penitent  and  believing  of  our  race,  because 
so  it  pleased  the  Father ;  it  also  availed  by  its  moral  power  (the 
Divine  Spirit  being  in  it  and  with  it)  to  reconcile  rebellious  hearts 
to  obedience  and  love.  Thus  the  great  elements  and  agencies 
requisite  for  the  salvation  of  rebel  men  were  provided  by  Christ 
when  he  made  peace  through  the  blood  of  his  cross. 

Yet  even  these  truths,  magnificent  and  far  reaching  though 
they  are,  have  not  exhausted  the  treasures  of  great  thought  em- 
bosomed in  this  passage.  Thus  far  we  have  taken  no  special  ac- 
count of  the  stress  laid  upon  "a/Z  things''  (" reconciling  «ZZ  things 
unto  himself"),  nor  upon  the  particular  specification,  "whether 
things  in  earth  or  things  in  heaven."  Here  let  it  be  observed 
that  "things  in  earth"  come  legitimately  first  in  order;  for  obvi- 
ously Christ's  blood  shed  on  the  cross  takes  effect  first  and  pri- 
marily upon  lost  men — sinners  of  our  fallen  race. — Note  further, 
that  the  word  "reconcile"  has,  as  we  well  know,  a  very  special 
adaptation  to  rebellious  men.  "  God  is  in  Christ  reconciling  the 
world  unto  himself"  (2  Cor.  5:  18-20).  This  may  account  for 
tlie  choice  of  this  word  to  express  the  entire  range  and  sweep  of 
that  moral  power  which  goes  forth  from  Christ's  redemptive  work ; 
first  reclaiming  out  of  our  fallen  race  "a  great  multitude  that  no 
man  can  number,"  and  then  sending  forth  a  moral  power,  orig- 
inating in  these  developments  of  God's  eternal  and  infinite  love, 
that  shall  pervade  the  intelligent  universe,  reaching  "  things  in 
heaven"  as  well  as  "things  in  earth."  These  secondary  influ- 
ences, going  forth  from  Christ's  redemption  of  lost  men  might 
have  been  expressed  by  some  other  word  than  "reconcile,"  if  they 
had  been  spoken  of  by  themselves — i.  e.,  if  their  results  on  our 
fallen  race  had  not  been  so  entirely  in  the  foreground  to  shape 
the  comprehensive  phrase  which  should  include  both. 

The  real  sense  of  this  passage  is  not  exhausted  till  we  have  de- 
veloped from  it  the  sublime  truth  that  a  moral  power  is  to  go  forth 
from  Christ's  redemptive  work  whii^h  shall  far  outtravcl  tlic  nar- 
row limits  of  our  fallen  huiuatiity,  revealing  so  much  of  God 
before  the  intelligent  universe — put  here  as  "  things  in  heaven" — 


COLOSSI ANS. — CHAP.   I.  161 

as  shall  bind  them  in  bonds  of  everlasting  love,  obedience,  adora- 
tion, praise,  to  the  eternal  throne,  and  shut  off  (supposably)  the 
moral  possibility  of  other  lapses  from  virtue,  analogous  to  what 
heaven  saw  in  the  fallen  angels  and  to  what  earth  has  seen  in 
fallen  man.  The  words  of  Paul  (Eph,  1 :  10)  seem  to  reach  out 
to  a  result  not  less  grand  and  comprehensive  than  this  :  "  That  in 
the  dispensation  of  the  fullness  of  times,  he  might  gather  together 
in  one  all  things  in  Christ,  both  which  are  in  heaven  and  which 
are  in  earth,  even  in  him."  All  things  are  to  be  brought  under 
his  supreme  Headship.  To  the  moral  universe,  to  all  the  unfallen, 
and  to  this  fallen  race  so  far  as  his  cross  avails  to  redeem  and 
reclaim,  he  becomes  the  One  Infinite  Head,  the  Fountain  and 
Source  of  moral  power  which  shall  be  Peace  to  all  heaven  as  it 
has  been  to  the  earth — to  all  unfallen  races,  as  to  this  fallen  race. 

In  treating  this  passage,  Ellicott,  a  critic  never  otherwise  than 
careful,  judicious,  reverent,  says :  "  This  and  no  less  than  this  it 
does  say,  that  the  eternal  and  incarnate  Son  is  the  causa  medians 
[the  intermediate  agent]  by  which  the  absolute  totality  of  created 
things  shall  be  restored  into  its  primal  harmony  with  its  Creator 
— a  declaration  more  specifically  unfolded  in  the  following  clause. 
More  than  this  it  does  not  say,  and  where  God  is  silent,  it  is  not 

for  man  to  speak  (see  Eph.  1 :  10)." "Hoiv  the  reconciliation  of 

Christ  affects  the  spiritual  world,  whether  by  the  annihilation  of 
the  posse  peccare  [power  to  sin],  or  by  the  infusion  of  a  more 
perfect  knowledge  (Eph.  3 :  10),  or  (less  probably)  by  some  re- 
storative application  to  the  fallen  spiritual  world,  we  know  not, 
and  we  dare  not  speculate.  This,  however,  we  may  fearlessly  assert 
— that  the  efficacy  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  Eternal  Son  is  infinite 
and  limitless ;  that  it  extends  to  all  things  in  earth  and  heaven, 
and  that  it  is  the  blessed  medium  by  which  peace  is  wrought  be- 
tween God  and  his  creatures,  whether  angelic,  human;  animate,  or 
inanimate  (Kom,  8:  19)," 

The  point  which  Ellicott  suggests  as  "less  probable," — viz., 
"  some  restorative  application  to  the  fallen  spiritual  world  " — 
should  not  be  ignored.  Inquiring  minds  will  ask  it — ask  it  ear- 
nestly,— What,  on  this  point,  can'be  inferred  from  this  passage  ? 

First  and  most  obvious,  on  the  face  of  the  passage,  is  the  fact 
that  the  specifications — "things  in  earth  and  things  in  heaven" 
— leave  out  "  helV — pass  in  ominous  silence  "  the  place  prepared 
for  the  devil  and  his  angels" — that  place  to  which  the  unre- 
claimed of  earth  are  doomed — for  their  "eternal  punishment." 
With  the  greatest  ease  Paul  might  have  included  by  name  that 
apostate  angel  race,  and  also  the  unsaved  of  our  fallen  human 
family — if  the  inditing  Spirit  had  bidden  him  do  so,  or  had  even 
permitted  it.  But  those  fallen  ones  are  not  included.  Is  it  safe 
for  us  to  assume  the  responsibility  of  affirming  what  the  inspired 
apostle  does  not  dare  affirm — what,  coming  to  this  point;  saying 
every  thing  else  but  this ;  standing  in  thought  where,  to  affirm 
this,  if  true,  would  have  been  supremely  to  his  purpose,  he  yet 
does  in  fact  pass  with  most  ominous  silence  ? 


162  COLOSSI ANS. — CHAP.    I. 

The  secondary  consideration — upon  which  there  can  be  no  oc- 
casion to  enlarge  or  expand,  is  that  the  Scriptures  most  emphat- 
ically affirm  the  absolute  eternity  of  the  punishment,  both  of  fallen 
angels  and  of  those  of  our  race  who  reject  the  offered  gospel  and 
perish  in  their  unbelief  "  He  that  believeth  not  the  Son  shall 
not  see  life,  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him"  (John  3:  36). 

21.  And  you,  that  were  sometime  alienated  and  enemies 
in  your  mind  by  wicked  works,  yet  now  hath  he  reconciled : 

22.  In  the  body  of  his  flesh  through  death,  to  present  you 
holy  and  unblamable  and  unreprovable  in  his  sight: 

23.  If  ye  continue  in  the  faith  grounded  and  settled,  and 
he  not  moved  away  from  the  hope  of  the  gospel,  which  ye 
have  heard,  and  which  was  preached  to  every  creature  which 
is  under  heaven  ;  whereof  I  Paul  am  made  a  minister ; 

Specific  application  to  the  Colosaian  brethren  of  the  great  gospel 
truths  above  presented.  This  marvelous  power  of  reconcilia- 
tion is  fallen  upon  them. The  question,  Who  hath  reconciled 

— whether  Paul  ascribes  this  to  God  or  to  Christ — may  admit  of 
some  doubt";  but  the  considerations  strongly  favor  the  reference 
to  God  to  whom  the   reconciling    in  v.  20  should  be   specially 

ascribed. The  object,  viz.,  to   present  them  pure,  blameless, 

above  reproach,  is  the  doctrine  of  Scripture  every-where  (e.  g., 

Eph.  5 :  26,  27). In  v.  23,  This  result  will  be  reached  in  your 

case,  if  in  very  deed  ye  continue  firm  in  the  faith  ye  have  em- 
braced;— a  caution  against  being  seduced  away. "Preached 

to  every  creature" — does  not  assume  that  all  the  world  had  then 
heard  the  gospel,  but  rather  that  it  was  preached  indiscriminately 
to  all — Jews  and  Gentiles ;  none  being  excluded  as  not  coming 
within  the  pale  of  its  oflered  blessings. 

24.  Who  now  rejoice  in  my  sufferings  for  you,  and  fill  up 
that  which  is  behind  of  the  afflictions  of  Christ  in  my  flesh 
for  his  body's  sake,  which  is  the  church: 

This  passage  seems  to  say  that  in  some  sense,  the  afflictions  of 
Christ  for  his  people  are  deficient;  leave  something  lacking  and 
behind,  which  Paul  rejoices  to  fill  up,  in  his  flesh.  Here  several 
questions  of  profound  interest  are  sprung  upon  us;  e.  g.,  What 
are  these  afflictions  of  Christ?  How  came  the^  to  be  deficient  in 
amount  for  their  purpose  ?  And  how  do  Paul  s  bodily  suficrings 
avail  to  make  good  this  deficiency? 

These  points  assume  a  very  peculiar  interest  fronj  the  fact  that 
they  have  been  thought  hy  some  to  ])ear  upon  the  atonement 
made  by  Christ  for  sin.  H"  so,  they  must  throw  light  on  the  nat- 
ure of  that  atonement,  and  particularly  the  nature  of  the  suffer- 
ings by  which  it  is  made.  If  Jesus  did  not  ])ear  himself  all  the 
suffering  necessary  fur  all  purposes  of  atonement,  and  if  conse- 
quently there  remained  a  deficiency  which  Paul  by  his  sufferings 


COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.    I.  163 

could  make  good,  then,  for  aught  that  appears,  other  Christians 
besides  Paul  may  also  contribute  their  quota  by  suffering  in  their 
flesh;  and  a  yet  more  pregnant  consequence  must  be,  that  the 
atonement  is  not  made  by  Christ  alone  and  only,  and  we  are 
driven  to  the  conclusion  that  sacrifice,  blood  and  death,  are  not 
vital  elements  in  the  atonement ;  also  that  a  divine  Christ  is  not 
essential ;  and  hence  we  must  find  its  vital  forces  either  in  the 
afflictions,  persecutions,  hard  labors,  which  are  the  cost  of  gospel 
work ;  or  in  the  sympathy  of  benevolent   souls  for  the  miseries 

of  sin  and  sinners. Now  if  such  results  hang  suspended  upon 

the  interpretation  of  this  passage,  the  groundwork  of  its  inter- 
pretation ought  to  be  laid  with  great  care  and  thoroughness. 

"J'he  fundamental  position  in  this  groundwork  is  that  the  pas- 
sage has  no  reference  whatever  to  the  atonement.  It  says  nothing 
about  atonement,  and  therefore  does  not  even  hint  that  Paul  con- 
tributed toward  filling  out  its  requisite  sufferings ;  consequently  it 
throws  not  the  least  light  upon  the  nature  of  those  sufferings  which 
are  represented  as  vital  in  the  atonement. 

1.  To  sustain  this  position  it  is  only  necessary  to  show  that  the 
Scriptures  never  use  this  word  for  "  affliction  '  *  to  signify  the 
sufferings  and  death  of  Christ ;  never  use  it  in  reference  to  the 
atonement  nor  in  any  way  as  the  ground  for  the  forgiveness  of 
sin.  The  Greek  word  is  used  abundantly  in  the  New  Testament 
(forty-five  times)  and  always  in  the  sense  of  "  tribulation,"  per- 
secution— almost  exclusively  for  the  sufferings  which  befall  the 
people  of  God  through  the  hostility  even  to  violence,  of  God's  en- 
emies. The  following  standard  cases  of  its  usage  may  serve  for 
illustration  and  for  proof  of  the  point  here  made : 

"In  the  world  ye  shall  have  tribulation^^  (John  16:  33). 
"  God  delivered  Joseph  out  of  all  his  tribulations  "  [afflictions] 
(Acts  7  :  10).  "  They  that  were  scattered  abroad  by  the  tribula- 
tion ["persecution"]  that  arose  about  Stephen"  (Acts   11:  19). 

"  That  through  much  tribulation,  we  must  enter  the  kingdom 

of  God"  (Acts  14:  22).  "Witnessing  in  every  city  that  bonds 
and  tribulations  ["  afflictions"]  abide  [await]  me  "  (Acts  20 :  23). 

"  Faint  not  at  my  tribulations  for  you  which  are  your  glory  " 

(Eph.  3:  13.) 

2.  These  sufferings  are  distinctly  said  to  be  for  Christ  s  body  s 
sake— the  church.  But  the  atonement  is  made  for  individual  sin- 
ners—not for  the  church  as  a  whole— a  "  body."  Therefore  these 
afflictions  are  not  the  sufferings  which  constitute  the  atonement. 
The  atonement  is  for  the  pardon  of  sin,  not  for  the  building  up 
of  the  church  directly ;  not  for  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  ;^  not 
for  any  thing  in  behalf  of  the  church  which  incurs  "  tribulation." 
Hence  we  must  infer  that  this  passage  has  no  reference  whatever 
to  the  atonement  inasmuch  as  the  Scriptures  always  locate  this  in 
the  blood  and  death  of  Christ. 

3.  It  is  never  safe  to  interpret  figurative  language^  without 
due  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  figure,  and  to  its  bearing  upon 


164  COLOSSI ANS. — CHAP.    I. 

the  sense.  Here  the  figure  is — The  church  under  the  symbol  of 
a  human  body,  of  which  Christ  is  the  Head.  The  sympathy  be- 
tween the  head  and  all  else  of  the  body  is  simply  perfect.  Not 
only  is  it  true  in  general  that  "if  one  member  suffer,  all  the  mem- 
bers suffer  with  it;"  but  it  is  pre-eminently  true  in  particular 
that  if  the  body  suffers,  the  head  must  sympathize  intensely. 

Now  the  age  of  Paul  was  one  of  persecution  and  tribulation. 
Jesus  had  said  to  his  disciples — "  In  the  world  ye  shall  have  trib- 
ulation''— the  same  word  as  here  ["affliction"].  Meetingtheman 
who  early  led  off  in  these  persecutions,  Jesus  accosted  him — 
"Saul,  Saul,  why  persecutest  thou  me?  "  It  is  not  strange  there- 
fore that  this  same  Saul  should  long  remember  that  persecuting 
the  church  is  persecuting  Christ;  that  he  who  smites  the  body 
smites  the  head  also ;  so  that  consequently  that  sacred,  sympa- 
thizing Head  feels  every  pain  which  his  body — the  church — feels 
in  her  gospel  work  for  his  name.  Nor  is  it  strange  that  Paul, 
remembering  ever  the  cruel  wrong  he  had  done  to  his  Savior  in 
persecuting  his  people  unto  death  should  rejoice  in  being  per- 
mitted to  change  sides — to  place  himself  among  Christ's  perse- 
cuted people  and  lay  bare  his  own  bosom  to  the  hottest  shafts  of 
torture  and  death  for  his  Savior's  sake.  How  grandly  did  he  put 
his  flesh  into  this  conflict  of  pain,  imprisonment,  torture,  death — 
all  in  behalf  of  Christ's  body,  the  church — that  he  might  supple- 
ment what  was  behind  of  the  afflictions  of  Christ  for  his  body's 
sake !  When  Paul  saw  there  was  more  to  be  endured  for  Christ's 
dear  body,  the  church;  how  joyfully  did  he  spring  forward  into 
the  deadly  breach  and  take  the  arrows  of  death  to  his  bosom! 

This  interpretation  adjusts  itself  to  the  figure  and  to  the  facts 
of  the  passage,  and  therefore  must  be  the  true  one.  Moreover, 
the  reader  may  find  confirmation  of  these  views  in  passages  like 
the  following:  "For  as  the  sufferings  of  Christ  abound'in  us" 
(2  Cor.  1 :  5) ; — "  That  I  may  know  the  fellowship  of  his  suffer- 
ings" (Phil.  3:  10); — "  Rejoice  inasmuch  as  ye  are  partakers  of 
Christ's  sufferings"  (1  Pet.  4:  13). 

25.  Whereof  I  am  made  a  minister,  according  to  the  dis- 
pensation of  God  which  is  given  to  me  for  you,  to  fulfill  the 
Avord  of  God  ; 

26.  Even  the  mystery  which  hath  been  hid  from  ages  and 
from  generations,  but  now  is  made  manifest  to  his  saints: 

27.  To  whom  God  Avould  make  known  what  is  the  riches 
of  the  glory  of  this  mystery  among  the  Gentiles ;  which  is 
Christ  in  you,  the  hope  of  glory  : 

The  true  sense  of  those  leading  words — "  dispensation,"  "  mys- 
tery," long  time  hidden,  but  then  recently  revealed — appears  in 
E[)h.  3  :  2-0,  to  which  the  reader  is  referred.  l*aul  seems  never 
M'cary  of  tliis  thonie — the  wonderful  breadth  of  the  divine  plan  of 
redoiiiptiou,  long  a.f»pareutly  r(^strict(Ml  to  the  ancient  covenant 
people,  but  in  this  latter  time,  bursting  those  narrow  limits  and 


COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.  I.  165 

casting  abroad  its  magnificent  wealth  of  blessings  upon  the  whole 
Gentile  world.  It  was  Paul's  high  honor  and  his  enrapturing 
delight  to  have  had  this  dispensation  of  an  unlimited,  unrestricted 
gospel  of  world-wide  salvation,  intrusted  first  of  all  to  himself. 
That  which  was  so  long  a  mystery  (a  thing  not  revealed)  is  now 
"  made  manifest  to  his  saints." 

In  the  phrase—"  the  riches  of  the  glory  of  this  mystery  "—(very 
Pauline  in  form),  it  is  of  some  consequence  to  have  definite 
ideas.  Is  the  emphatic  word  "  riches"  or  is  it  "glory"  ?  Does 
he  mean  the  glorious  riches,  or  the  rich  glory  ?  And  what  pre- 
cisely is  this  "  glory  "  ?  To  this  last  question  Paul  virtually 
makes  answer— Christ  himself.  He  is  the  "glory"  involved  in 
this  old  "mystery"  now  made  manifest.  He  is  the  glory,  the 
superlative  richness  of  which,  God  would  fain  make  known  among 
the  Gentiles,  and  make  it  known  as  being  truly  designed  for  them 
not  less  than  for  Jews.  Moreover,  the  vital  elements  which  make 
Jesus  Christ  pre-eminently  the  glory— the  consummation  of  all 
that  is  excellent,  precious,  grand— are  his  transforming  power 
upon  human  souls  unto  purity  and  blessedness,  and  the  fullness 
of  God's  grace  to  men  which  Christ's  manifestation  reveals. 
These  elements  conduce  to  make  Jesus  Christ  in  his  people  "  the 
hope  of  glory  "—the  source,  the  fountain  whence  their  purity  and 
blessedness  forever  flow. 

28.  Whom  we  preach,  warning  every  man,  and  teaching 
every  man  in  all  wisdom ;  that  we  may  present  every  man 
perfect  in  Christ  Jesus  : 

29.  Whereunto  I  also  labor,  striving  according  to  his 
working,  which  worketh  in  me  mightily. 

Bearino-  responsibilities  so  momentous,  a  mission  so  sublime, 
Paul  gives  himself  to  the  preaching  of  this  gospel  and  would 
fain  have  his  Colossian  brethren  understand  well  what  he 
preaches;  how  he  admonishes  and  warns;  and  what  he  holds 
ever  in  heart  as  his  ultimate  aim.  He  longs  to  bring  every  man 
to  the  high  attainment  of  perfection  in  Christ.  He  would  have 
them  bear  Christ's  image,  not  partially  but  perfectly— would  have 
them  dead  to  sin,  not  in  some  respects  only  but  in  all^not  with 
divided  but  with  perfect  heart— not  in  some  points  of  living 
practice  but  in  all.  For  this  he  labors,  and  with  the  sustaining 
conviction  that,  for  these  results,  God  through  his  Spirit,  works 
within  him  mightily.  This  sustaining  conviction  assumed  fun- 
damentally that  such  high  aims  in  holy  living  were  in  the  very 
plan  of  God. 


166  COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.    II. 


CHAPTER  II. 


Paul  wishes  they  might  know  how  deeply  his  soul  agonizes 
for  them,  though  they  have  never  seen  each  other  (v,  1) ;  the 
burden  of  his  prayer  in  their  behalf  (v.  2,  3) ;  fearing  they  might 
be  beguiled  from  their  yet  steadfast  faith  (v.  4,  5) ;  having  received 
Christ,  so  let  them  walk  in  him,  being  fully  established  (v.  6,  7) ; 
renewed  caution  lest  any  man  rob  them  of  the  true  gospel  and 
its  blessings  by  putting  something  else  before  Christ  who  has  all 
fullness  and  in  whom  they  are  entirely  complete,  he  being 
supreme  in  all  power  (v.  8-10);  in  whom  is  the  true  spiritual 
circumcision  (v.  11),  and  the  spiritual  power  of  the  true  baptism 
(v.  12);  who  raises  the  spiritually  dead  to  new  life  (v.  13);  he 
has  canceled  the  Mosaic  ritual  which  bore  against  Gentiles 
(v.  14);  and  has  triumphed  over  all  other  powers,  angelic  or 
otherwise  (v.  15).  Therefore  let  no  man  judge  them  in  the  mat- 
ter of  eating,  drinking,  or  the  Mosaic  festivals,  these  being  only  a 
shadow  of  which  Christ  is  the  body  (v.  16,  17) ;  further  specifica- 
tion of  the  beguiling  errors  against  which  he  warns  them  (v.  18); 
which  dishonor  Christ  the  Head  (v.  19);  closing  with  another 
protest  against  those  delusions  (v.  20-23). 

1.  For  I  would  that  ye  knew  what  great  conflict  I  have 
for  you,  and  for  them  at  Laodicea,  and  for  as  many  as  have 
not  seen  my  face  in  the  flesh ; 

2.  That  their  hearts  might  be  comforted,  being  knit  to- 
gether in  love,  and  unto  all  riches  of  the  full  assurance  of 
understanding,  to  the  acknowledgment  of  the  mystery  of 
God,  and  of  the  Father,  and  of  Christ ; 

3.  In  whom  are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and 
knowledge. 

"Conflict"  here  is  the  strong  word  "^  from  which  we  take  our 
English  word  agony.  What  he  had  heard  concerning  them  had 
deeply  moved  his  soul  to  solicitude  and  prayer  in  their  behalf, 
although  they  had  never  seen  each  other  in  the  flesh. 

He  prays  that  they  may  be  comforted;  be  made  strong  in  the 
bonds  of  mutual  love;  and  may  progress  even  to  a  full  experience 
of  the  blessedness  of  assured  intellectual  conviction,  particularly 
unto  the  knowledge  of  the  mystery  of  (iiod — that  is,  of  Christ,  in 

whom  lie  hidden  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge. 

The  improved  text  (Tischcndorf)  omits  the  words  "And  of  the 
Father,  and" — leaving  it — "The  mystery  of  God,  Christ," — in  the 
sense,  viz.,  of  Christ.  Having  spoken  first  of  the  mystery  as  that 
of  God,  he  adds  the  word  "Christ"  for  explanation — I  mean  the 
mystery  concerning  Christ.  The  long  unrevealed  truth  concern- 
ing the  promised  Christ  might  indeed  be  said  in  general  to  be  a 


COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.   II.  167 

"  mystery  of  God,"  yet  was  more  precisely  of  Christ. All  the 

wealth  of  wisdom  and  knowledge  which  God  proposed  to  reveal 
was  stored  in  him.     He  had  it  all. 

4.  And  this  I  say,  lest  any  man  should  beguile  you  with 
enticing  words. 

5.  For  though  I  be  absent  in  the  flesh,  yet  am  I  with  you 
in  the  spirit,  joying  and  beholding  your  order,  and  the  stead- 
fastness of  your  faith  in  Christ. 

What  I  have  just  said  is  to  warn  you  against  being  beguiled  by 
false  reasoning,  put  in  plausible  words.  Consider  that  I  am  with 
you  in  thought  and  heart,  and  am  rejoiced,  for  I  seem  to  see  you 
marching  on  with  steadfast  step  and  unbroken  rank  like  dauntless 
soldiers  in  line  of  battle  (the  sense  of  the  word  "order") — all  in 
the  firmness  of  faith  that  has  Christ  for  its  object. 

6.  As  ye  have  therefore  received  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord, 
so  walk  ye  in  him: 

7.  Rooted  and  built  up  in  him,  and  established  in  the 
faith,  as  ye  have  been  taught,  abounding  therein  with  thanks- 
giving. 

Having  once  received  Jesus  Christ  as  truthfully  taught  you,  see 
that  ye  live  in  him,  strongly  rooted,  firmly  built  upon  him  as  your 
foundation,  ever  strong  in  the  faith  even  as  ye  have  been  taught. 

"Abundant  in  thanksgiving,"  in  this  connection,  suggests  that 

joyous  gratitude  and  thanksgiving  to  God  are  elements  of  the 
Christian's  strength;  and  moreover,  that  true  faith  in  Jesus 
supplies  unbounded  occasion  for  both.  They  needed  the  help  of 
no  new  notions  of  Christ  to  make  their  religion  joyous.  Religious 
experiences  in  Christ  that  are  thoroughly  soul-satisfying — that 
fill  the  heart  with  peace,  with  joy  and  with  perpetual  thanksgiv- 
ing to  God,  no  sensible  man  is  under  any  temptation  to  let  go  in 
hope  of  something  better. 

8.  Beware  lest  any  man  spoil  you  through  philosophy  and 
vain  deceit,  after  the  tradition  of  men,  after  the  rudiments  of 
the  world,  and  not  after  Christ. 

9.  For  in  him  dwelleth  all  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead 
bodily. 

"Spoil  you" — not  in  the  sense  of  taking  your  good  things 
from  you,  but  rather  of  taking  yourselves,  bo^jly ; — making  you 
his  booty.  This  apostle  of  delusion,  spoken  of  as  one  man, 
sought  nothing  less  than  drawing  his  victims,  body  and  soul,  into 
his  snares.  Christian  men  will  counterwork  his  agencies  the 
better  if  they  know  his  tactics;  so  Paul  describes  them.  A 
philosophy,  the  very  essence  and  soul  of  which  is  vain  deceit,  for 
Paul's  words  couple  these  ideas  closely — a  deceptive  philosophy 


168  COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.  II. 

which  corresponds  with  and  works  upon  the  traditions  of  men 
and  the  elements  of  worldliness,  and  is  not  at  all  according  to 
Christ. 

Th&  reader  will  notice  that  so  far  as  defined  here,  this  new 
doctrine  has  two  characteristic  elements;  (a.)  Like  Jewish  Phar- 
isaism, it  followed  human  tradition;  (6.)  and  like  all  unsanctified 
souls  it  loved  and  introduced  worldly  elements  and  not  Christ. 
Yet  Christ  is  all  sufficient  and  has  never  the  least  need  of  being 
supplemented  by  such  aid,  for  in  him  dwells  all  the  fullness  of 
divinity,^  even  in  his  incarnate  state.  The  human  person,  Jesus, 
appearing  as  man  among  men,  did  truly  manifest  the  fullness  of 
God — the  fullness  of  God's  wisdom;  the  fullness  of  God's  love; 
the  fullness  of  his  spiritual  power  to  save — so  that  no  man,  once 
accepting  him,  could  by  any  possibility  need  any  thing  more  or 
other  than  Jesus. 

10.  And  ye  are  complete  in  him,  which  is  the  head  of  all 
principality  and  power : 

Since  Christ  has  such  fullness,  all  your  wants  must  be  perfectly 
supplied  in  him — a  truth  so  vital  that  Paul  is  not  content  to  leave 
it  to  be  inferred,  but  solemnly  affirms  it.  In  him  ye  are  made 
full — filled  with  all  most  blessed  things — wisdom,  moral  strength, 
divine  love — so  that  nothing  more  can  be  desired. It  was  per- 
tinent to  add  just  here  that  Jesus  is  supreme  above  all  the  highest 
orders  of  created  beings — those  which  Paul  often  speaks  of  under 
the  names  which  are  here — "principalities  and  powers."  (See 
1:  16  and  2:  15  and  Eph.  1:  21.) 

These  seducing  doctrines  had  a  place  for  the  worship  of  angels, 
and  apparently,  for  their  Mediatorship  —  probably  under  the 
Romish  idea  of  the  virgin-mother  as  an  intermediate  agency  be- 
tween Christ  and  men.  Hence  the  point  put  here — Christ  above 
all  "  principalities  and  powers,"  and  therefore  superseding  their 
aid  most  entirely. 

11.  In  whom  also  ye  are  circumcised  with  the  circumcision 
made  without  hands,  in  putting  off  the  body  of  the  sins  of 
the  flesh  by  the  circumcision  of  Christ: 

12.  Buried  with  him  in  baptism,  wherein  also  ye  are  risen 
with  him  through  the  faith  of  the  operation  of  God,  who 
hath  raised  him  from  the  dead. 

13.  And  you,  being  dead  in  your  sins  and  the  uncircum- 
cision  of  your  flesh,  hath  he  quickened  together  with  him, 
having  forgivemyou  all  trespasses; 

Supposably  these  apostles  of  delusion  had  so  much  Judaism 
in  their  system  that  they  would  enforce  circumcision  upon  Gen- 
tiles.    Hence  Paul  says  to  the  Colossians ; — In  Christ  ye  have 

*  dEOTTjTOa 


COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.  II.  169 

the  best  possible  circumcision — one  not  hand-wrought,  but 
wrought  by  the  Divine  Spirit;  which  puts  off  the  fleshly  body  in 
the  true  spiritual  sense — which  is  a  circumcision  wrought  by 

Christ,  and  therefore  perfect. Circumcision  is   certainly  here 

in  its  spiritual  significance — the  discarding  and  rising  above  the 
control  of  the  flesh  into  the  realm  of  the  truly  spiritual  life. 

Verse  12  calls  for  comment  in  two  lines  of  inquiry; — the  first 
general;  the  second  very  specific:  the  first  expounding  the  general 
sense  of  the  passage  in  its  context;  the  second  raising  the  very 
specific  question  whether  "buried"  as  applied  here  to  baptism 
looks  toward  its  mode  of  administration  and  assumes  that  mode 

to  have  been  immersion. Postponing  remarks  upon  this  second 

point  for  the  present,  let  us  consider  the  first. 

Beyond  all  question  Paul  has  spoken  (v.  11)  of  circumcision  in 
its  spiritual  sense  and  in  this  sense  only.  A  circumcision  not 
hand-wrought  but  wrought  by  Christ,  and  which  consisted  in  re- 
moving— putting  off— the  whole  body  of  fleshly  sin — this  is  simply 

spiritual  circumcision  and  nothing  else. Still  further,  it  can 

not  be  doubted  that  this  allusion  to  circumcision  suggested  bap- 
tism, this  being  the  Christian  rite  analogous  to  Jewish  circumcis- 
ion; nor  can  it  be  denied  that  baptism  as  well  as  circumcision 
is  here  in  its  spiritual  sense  and  in  this  sense  only.  Particularly 
is  this  shown  in  the  rising  [resurrection]  said  to  be  "  with 
Christ" — i.  e.,  analogous  to  his  resurrection;  and  moreover,  being 
through  faith  in  the  energy  of  God  who  raised  him  [Christ]  from 

the  dead. Pausing  here  a  moment  upon  this  phrase,  translated, 

"the  faith  of  the  operation  of  God" — let  it  be  noted  that  our 
English  version  is  quite  literal,  the  Greek  word  for  "operation" 
having  the  sense  of  energy,  poicer — this  being  the  Greek  word, 
energy,  which  we  have  transferred  in  the  same  sense  to  our 
tongue.  But  the  question  as  to  its  exact  sense  is  whether  we 
shall  read — faith  in  the  power  of  God — i.  e.,  the  soul's  confidence 
in  God's  power  to  save;  or  faith  wrought  by  God's  power.  If  the 
latter  be  the  right  construction  it  would  go  strongly  to  prove  that 
faith  as  thought  of  here  is  rather  wrought  in  us  than  exercised 

by  us. The  former  construction — faith  resting  in  God's  power, 

I  take  to  be  the  true  sense,  this  being  the  usage  of  the  Scriptures 
in  grammatical  constructions  of  this  sort — viz.,  the  genitive  fol- 
lowing the  word  "  faith."  This  always  expresses  that  in  which 
the  soul  by  faith  believes.  E.  g.,  in  Acts  3  :  16,  "  Through  the  faith 
of  his  name,"  means  faith  exercised  in  his  name — not  faith 
wrought  by  his  name.  In  Phil.  1 :  27,  "Striving  together  for  the 
faith  of  the  gospel,"  means  faith  exercised  in  the  gospel.  In  2 
Thess.  2:  13,  "Through  belief  of  the  truth" — is  certainly  equiva- 
lent to  belief  in  the  truth. The  sense  of  the   whole  clause, 

therefore,  is :  Ye  rise  with  Christ  by  the  resurrection  which  is 
out  of  death  in  sin  unto  spiritual  life,  and  so  is  through  your 
faith  in  that  divine  energy  put  forth  by  God  in  raising  Christ 
from  the  dead.  The  Scriptures  very  commonly  speak  of  Christ 
as  raised  from  the  dead  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 


170  COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.  II. 

Here  it  becomes  not  only  important  but  vital  to  the  full  under- 
standing of  our  passage  to  notice  that  the  New  Testament  writers 
make  great  use  of  this  analogy  between  the  dying  and  rising 
again  of  Christ  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other,  the  dying  of 
his  people  to  sin  and  their  rising  to  new  spiritual  life  under  the 
working  of  the  same  power  that  raised  Christ. 

This  analogy  has  its  roots  apparently  in  those  words  of  Christ 
(John  5:  21,  24,  25):  "The  Son  quickeneth"  [giveth  spiritual 
life  to]  "whom  he  will."  "  He  that  believeth  on  him  that  sent 
me  is  passed  from  death  unto  life."  "  The  hour  is  coming  and 
now  is  when  the  dead  [in  sin]  shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of 

God,  and  they  that  hear  shall  live." This  can  be  nothing  else 

but  the  spiritual  raising  of  spiritually  dead  souls,  to  life. 

The  points  of  this  analogy  are  at  once  clear,  striking,  instruct- 
ive. Christ  died  to  earth ;  his  people  die  to  earthliness  :  Christ  is 
raised  to  a  new  sphere  of  glorious  life  in  heaven ;  they  to  a  new 
sphere  of  Christian  life,  first  on  earth — ultimately  in  heaven. 

The  dying  of  Christ  carries  in  itself  a  mighty  moral  power  to- 
ward the  corresponding  death  of  his  people  to  sin :  his  rising 
from  death  to  glory  inspires  his  people  to  faith  and  hope,  first 
for  their  Christian  life  here ;  last,  for  their  similar  resurrection 
to  the  heavenly  life  hereafter.  Thus,  not  in  one  aspect  of  this 
analogy  only,  but  in  several,  it  was  exceedingly  pertinent  and 
forcible.  Hence  it  should  not  surprise  us  that,  taking  its  rise  in 
those  memorable  words  of  the  Lord  (John  5:  21,  24,  25)  it  should 

often  appear  in  the  writings  of  the  apostles. It  is  expanded 

with  remarkable  fullness  and  its  main  points  reiterated,  in  Rom. 
6:  2-13:  "How  shall  we  who  are  dead  to  sin  live  any  longer 
therein?"  "Dead  to  sin"  by  our  solemn  profession;  by  our 
most  sacred  vows ;  by  every  consideration  weighty  upon  Christian 
souls — for  this  death  is  in  its  nature  moral,  not  physical — how 

can  we  go  on  to  sin  again  ?- "  Know  ye  not  that  so  many  of  us 

as  were  baptized  into  Jesus  Christ  were  baptized  into  his  death?" 
i.  e.,  were  most  solemnly  consecrated,  pledged,  to  live  only  in  and 
for  Christ  and  to  die  thoroughly  unto  sin  and  all  earthliness,  even 
as  he  died  to  earth.  This  is  the  New  Testament  sense  of  beintr 
"  baptized  into."  So  the  "fathers  were  all  baptized  into  Moses' 
(1  Cor.  10:  2);  so  Paul  would  not  baptize  converts  into  his  own 
name  (1  Cor.  1:  13);  so  he  declares  (1  Cor.  12:  13),  "By  one 
Spirit  we  are  all  baptized  into  one  body" — one  and  the  same 

church  of  Christ. Still  onward  in  this,  Kom.  6:   "With  him 

we  are  buried  by  baptism  into  death" — solemnly  committed  to 
die  to  all  sin,  even  as  Christ  died  as  to  his  earthly  life;  and  this 
to  the  end  that  the  other  side  of  the  analogy  might  be  wrought 
out  in  our  experience — viz.,  "that  like  as  Christ  was  raised  up  from 
the  dead  by  the  glory"  [power]  "of  the  Father,  even  so  we  also 
should  walk  in  newness  of  life  ' — our  new  life  corresponding  to 
Christ's  in  the  heavenly  world.  So  onward,  this  passage  turns 
this  analogy  over  and  over:  Christians  "planted,"  first  in  the 
likeness  of  Christ's  death;  then  in  the  likeness  of  his  resurrcc- 


COLOSSI ANS. — CHAP.  II.  171 

tion  (v.  5).  "If  we  be  dead  with  Christ,  we  believe  we  shall  also 
live  with  him  "  (v.  8).  "  Reckon  ye  yourselves  dead  indeed  unto 
sin,  but  alive  unto  God  through  Jesus  our  Lord"  (v.  11). 

Similarly  in  the  context  of  our  passage.  In  v.  13  :  "  Ye  being 
dead  in  your  sins  hath  he  quickened"  [raised  to  new  life]  to- 
gether with  him  [Christ] — i.  e.,  even  as  he  raised  Christ  to  life. 
Also  V.  20:  "If  ye  be  dead  with  Christ  from  the  rudiments  of  the 
world,  why  as  though  living  in  the  world,  are  ye  subject  to  ordi- 
nances?" and  (chap.  3:  1-3):  "If  ye  be  risen  with  Christ  {i.  e., 
to  this  new  life  toward  God),  then  seek  ye  those  things  which  are 
above,"  etc. 

Numerous  other  passages  in  the  epistles  must  be  passed  here, 
noting  only  their  place,  so  that  the  reader  can  refer  to  them: 
€.  g.,^Rom.  8:  10,  11,  and  2  Cor.  13:  4,  and  Phil.  3:  10,  and  2 
Tim.  2:  11,  and  I  Pet.  2:  24.  The  reader  will  find  that  not  one 
of  these  passages  alludes  at  all  to  baptism.  The  great  analogy 
above  explained  was  not  built  on  baptism  at  all. 

This  must  suffice  for  the  general  exposition  of  our  passage. 

I  come  now  to  speak  briefly  of  the  specific  question  whether 
"buried  with  him  in  baptism"  looks  toward  the  mode  of  its  ad- 
ministration, and  shows  that  mode  to  have  been  immersion. 

My  readers  know  that  these  commentaries  are  not  designed  for 
the  exhaustive  or  even  extended  discussion  of  controversial  ques- 
tions. Such  questions  come  under  notice  here  only  so  far  as  the 
laws  of  language  apply  to  the  just  exposition  of  the  Avords. 

"Buried  with  him  in  baptism"  here,  should  be  studied  in  con- 
nection with  its  only  parallel  passage,  Romans  6:  3,  4:  "Know 
ye  not  that  so  many  of  us  as  were  baptized  into  Jesus  Christ  were 
baptized  into  his  death  ?  Therefore  we  are  buried  Avith  him  by 
baptism  into  death,  that  like  as  Christ  was  raised  up  from  the 
dead  by  the  glory  of  the  Father,  even  so  we  also  should  walk  in 
newness  of  life." 

On  our  now  pending  question — whether  in  these  two  passages 
Paul's  thought  is  upon  the  mode  of  baptism  as  immersion,  so  that 
this  "burying  in  baptism"  means  immersion  in  baptismal  waters 
— I  suggest  the  following  considerations  : 

1.  The  drift  of  the  whole  context  in  both  passages  (Col.  2:  12 
and  Rom.  6  :  3,  4)  is  upon  the  spiritual,  not  the  material  or  phys- 
ical sense  of  baptism — upon  its  spiritual  significance,  not  upon  its 
forms  and  modes  of  administration. 

2.  The  burying  by  baptism  is  abundantly  accounted  for  in  the 
fact  that  the  great  analogy  has  for  both  parties  (Christ  and  his 
people)  death  on  its  first  side,  and  on  its  second  side  has  (equally 
for  both)  a  resurrection.  But  to  make  the  idea  of  a  resurrection 
in  the  case  of  Christians  more  clear  and  striking,  they  are  thought 
of  not  only  as  dead,  but  as  buried.  Burial  naturally  precedes 
resurrection.  The  object,  therefore,  in  pushing  the  Christian's 
death  to  sin  to  the  extent  (figuratively  considered)  of  a  burial  is 
to  make  the  analogy  more  clear  and  forcible  when,  on  the  other 
side,  their  case  is  compared  with  that  of  Christ  in  the  point  of  a 


172  COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.  II. 

resurrection.  This  fully  accounts  for  burial,  so  that  no  other 
reason  need  be  assigned  or  can  be  reasonably.  That  in  the  apos- 
tle's thought,  'being  buried,"  in  this  figure,  is  not  burial  under 
the  waters  of  baptism,  but  is  being  buried  out  of  this  world  pre- 
paratory to  rising  to  a  new  life  in  and  through  Christ,  is  certified 
to  us  beyond  possible  mistake  by  his  own  words  below  (v.  20) : 
"As  though  living  in  the  world;"  for  these  words  show  that  this 
burying  has  taken  them  out  of  the  world. 

3.  On  the  second  side  of  this  analogy,  there  is  not  the  least  hint 
looking  toward  baptism — nothing  about  being  lifted  out  of  the 
water,'or  coming  up  out  of  it.     The  second  side  touches_  nothing 

whatever  but  the  figure  of  the  resurrection. This  omission  of  all 

reference  to  emerging  from  the  water,  after  the  supposed  immer- 
sion in  it,  goes  strongly  against  the  supposition  of  any  thought 
whatever  of  immersion  as  the  mode.  It  certainly  shows  that  the 
imagery  in  these  passages  is  not  built  upon  the  mode  of  baptism 
by  immersion,  but  is  built  solely  upon  the  analogy  above  ex- 
plained, the  second  side  of  which  is  nothing  more  or  less  than 
resurrection — i.  e.,  of  Christ  from  his  grave  and  of  his  people 
from  their  death  in  sin  to  a  new  life  corresponding  to  that  of 
Christ. 

4.  If,  when  Paul  wrote  (in  Rom.  6:  4),  "We  are  buried  with 
him  by  baptism  into  or  unto  death,"  his  mind  was  upon  immer- 
sion, and  if  he  really  spake  of  burial  under  the  baptismal  waters, 
what  could  he  have  meant  by  being  immersed  in  water  unto 
death  ?     There  is  but  one  legitimate  meaning  in  these  words — 

viz.,  immersing  the  subject  till  he  is  dead! Now  I  can  not 

conceive  how  Paul,  with  his  mind  fully  upon  immersion  in  water 
as  being  the  baptism  he  was  speaking  of,  could  possibly  say, 
"  baptism  unto  death."  I  infer,  therefore,  that  baptism  by  im- 
mersion was  not  in  his  mind  at  all. 

5.  So  in  our  passage  (Col.  2:12)  the  thing  that  lies  over  against 
})urial  in  baptism  is  not  rising  out  of  the  baptismal  waters,  but  is 
the  resurrection  to  a  new  s])iritual  life  through  faith,  correspond- 
ing to  Christ's  resurrection  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
That  is,  the  second  side  of  the  great  analogy  shows,  not  that  Avatcr 
baptism  by  immersion  is  in  Paul's  mind,  but  that  this  burying  is 
spoken  of  here  only  as  lying  over  against  a  resurrection — not  out 
of  water,  ])ut  out  of  real  death. 

6.  The  fact  that  in  a  large  majority  of  the  passages  which  are 
built  upon  this  great  analogy,  there  is  no  reference  whatever  to 
baptism,  shows  that  baptism  is  not  the  groundwork  of  this  con- 
ception, and  therefore  much  more  does  it  show  that  the  mode  of 
its  administration  does  not  by  any  means  underlie  this  great 
analogy. 

These  brief  heads  of  thought,  built  as  it  seems  to  me  upon  just 
laws  of  interpretation,  must  suffice,  without  further  expanding  the 
argument, 

14.  Blotting  out  the  handwriting  of  ordinances  that  was 


COLOSSIANS.— CHAP.    II.  173 

against  us,  which  was  contrary  to  us,  and  took  it  out  of  the 
way,  nailing  it  to  his  cross ; 

15.  And  having  spoiled  principalities  and  powers,  he  made 
a  show  of  them  openly,  triumphing  over  them  in  it. 

This  "handwriting"  can  be  no  other  than  the  ceremonial  insti- 
tutions given  through  Moses,  now  made  obsolete  through  Christ. 
They  were  on  record  in  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  in  the  form 
of  "handwriting"  so  called  here,  perhaps  to  suggest  the  facility 
of  "blotting  out."  They  were  "against  us,"  Gentiles,  inasmuch 
as  they  discriminated  sharply  against  all  Gentiles.  Christ  took 
that  "  handwriting"  out  of  the  way  of  Gentiles  as  an  obstacle  to 
their  conversion  and  welcome  reception  into  his  church — nailed 
it  to  his  cross,  putting  an  end  to  its  binding  force.  The  cross 
stands  for  salvation  to  all,  Jew  or  Gentile,  irrespective  of  nation- 
ality, and  so  it  terminated  forever  the  special  prerogatives  of 
Jews. 

The  "principalities  and  powers"  of  v.  15  are  spiritual  beings 
of  hi^h  rank,  the  terms  being  used  of  either  good  beings  (Eph. 
1:  21)  or  bad  (Eph.  6:  12) — the  question  which,  in  any  given 
case,  the  context  must  determine.  Here,  the  context  proves  that 
they  are  bad — the  devil  and  his  angels. 

The  word  translated  "having  spoiled"  means  strictly  to  cast  off 
as  a  garment,  here  in  the  kindred  sense  of  casting  away  from 
himself — as  good  men  repel  the  tempter — the  reference  being  to 
the  final  triumph  of  Jesus  over  all  the  powers  of  hell  in  their 
oft-repeated  assaults  upon  him  while  he  dwelt  in  human  flesh, 
"  tempted  in  all  points  as  we  are."  In  every  conflict  with  those 
powers,  Jesus  conquered  and  reached  his  last,  final  victory  on  his 
cross.  Rising  a  mighty  conqueror  over  all  the  powers  of  hell, 
he  emphatically  and  boldly  declared  his  triumph. 

The  reader  will  notice  that  v.  14  strikes  at  the  ritualistic  Juda- 
ism of  those  apostles  of  error;  v.  15  at  their  playing  into  the 
hands  of  "principalities  and  powers" — other  and  mightier  than 
human. 

16.  Let  no  man  therefore  judge  you  in  meat,  or  in  drink, 
or  in  respect  of  a  holy  day,  or  of  the  new  moon,  or  of  the 
Sabbath  days : 

17.  Which  are  a  shadow  of  things  to  come;  but  the 
body  is  of  Christ. 

"  Therefore  " — the  Mosaic  system  having  been  abrogated — allow 
no  man  to  judge  you,  as  a  matter  of  conscience,  of  moral  right 
or  wrong — in  the  point  of  eating  or  drinking,  things  clean  or  un- 
clean; nor  "  in  respect  of  an  holy  day''- — this  word  referring  to 
the  three  annual  festivals.     The  new  moons  also  had  their  ritual 

services. The  word  for  "  Sabbath  "  is  here  in  the  plural  form, 

and  therefore  should  naturally  include  not  only  the  weekly  Jew- 
ish Sabbath,  but  the  Sabbatic  year — each  seventh — and  the  jubilee 
—the  fiftieth.     The  plural  form  of  Sabbath  (Greek)  is  sometimes 


174  COLOSSI ANS. — CHAP.    II. 

used  for  the  weekly  Sabbath  only,  leaving  it  doubtful  whether 
Paul  designed  to  include  all  the  Mosaic  Sabbaths. 

From  this  passage  some  have  inferred  that  Paul  abrogated  all 
Sabbath,  classing  the  entire  institution  with  other  Mosaic  ordi- 
nances which  Christianity  supplanted  and  annulled.  But  this 
goes  quite  beyond  Paul's  words  or  his  meaning  either ;  for  the 
things  he  would  abrogate  are  "  the  handwriting  of  ordinances," 
characteristically  Jewish  and  naturally  hostile  to  Gentile  equality 

in  the  privileges  of  the  gospel. Moreover,  the  Jewish  Sabbath 

as  interpreted  by  the  Pharisees  and  as  imposed  under  their  teach- 
ing demanded  far  more  than  Moses  ever  did — so  much  more  that 
Jesus  set  himself  strongly  against  those  Pharisaic  interpretations 
and  impositions.  He  would  discard  such  Sabbath  laws,  but  he 
certainly  recognized  the  perpetual  obligation  of  a  true  Sabbath, 

The  reference  to  "  drinks  '  suggests  that  ascetic  practices  in 
this  respect  had  gone  quite  beyond  the  Mosaic  law. 

All  these  Mosaic  ceremonial  services  foreshadowed  the  coming 
Christ ;  were  only  the  shadow  of  which  Christ  is  the  body.  Hence 
the  "  body  "  having  now  come,  the  prophetic  shadows  have  served 
their  purpose  and  should  cease. 

18.  Let  no  man  beguile  you  of  your  reward  in  a  volun- 
tary humility  and  worshiping  of  angels,  intruding  into  those 
things  which  he  hath  not  seen,  vainly  puffed  up  by  his 
fleshly  mind, 

19.  And  not  holding  the  Head,  from  which  all  the  body 
by  joints  and  bands  having  nourishment  ministered,  and  knit 
together,  increaseth  with  the  increase  of  God. 

"  Beguile"  translates  a  Greek  word  which  looks  to  the  award 
made  by  the  judge  in  the  ancient  games  and  signifies  an  award 

adverse  to  their  rights. Let  no  one  beguile  you  of  set  purpose. 

The  Greek  word  for  "voluntary"  does  not  qualify  "humility" 
(as  our  authorized  version  has  it  erroneously)  but  the  word  for 
"  no  one" — thus  indicating  a  deliberate  intention  on  his  part  to 

cheat  them  out  of  their  reward. Assumed  humility,  coupled 

with  angel-worship,  are  the  means  used  for  their  purpose.  Angel- 
worship  seems  to  have  included  angel-mediatorship  as  well.  This, 
like  the  mediatorship  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  was  probably  advocated 
on  the  ground  that  God  is  too  high  and  too  pure  to  be  approached 
save  through  some  interposed  Mediator  other  than  Jesus.  So  it 
seemed  to  them  very  modest  and  very  humble  to  put  the  angels 

into  this  service. In  the  clause — "  Intruding  into  those  things 

which  he  hath  not  seen,"  the  word  for  the  negative  ("  not")  is  of 
doubtful  authority.  Accepting  it,  we  have  the  sense — pushing 
beyond  their  real  knowledge  into  realms  of  profitless  speculation 
(e.  g.,  about  the  angels).  On  the  other  hand,  rejecting  it,  we  must 
interpret; — bringing  every  thing  to  the  judgment  of  the  senses; 
demanding  some  tangible  Mediator  between  themselves  and  the 
invisible  God. That  the  ruling  motive  was  fleshly,  earthly — in. 


COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.    II.  175 

the  spirit,  not  of  genuine  humility  but  of  pride  that  puffeth  up — 
is  plainly  declared. 

Their  radical  defect — the  diverging  point  of  all  their  heresy — 
was  that  they  did  not  hold  fast  upon  Christ  the  Head,  from  whom 
flows  down  all  the  spiritual  power  that  breathes  vital  moral  force 
through  the  members  of  his  spiritual  body,  the  church.  This 
figure — the  Head,  Christ,  in  his  relation  to  the  bodily  members — 
his  people — is  the  same  which  appears  in  Eph.  4:  15. 

20.  Wherefore  if  ye  be  dead  witli  Christ  from  the  rudi- 
ments of  the  world,  why,  as  though  living  in  the  world,  are 
ye  subject  to  ordinances, 

21.  (Touch  not ;  taste  not ;  handle  not ; 

22.  Which  all  are  to  perish  with  the  using ;)  after  the 
commandments  and  doctrines  of  men  ? 

23.  Which  things  have  indeed  a  show  of  wisdom  in  will- 
worship,  and  humility,  and  neglecting  of  the  body ;  not  in 
any  honor  to  the  satisfying  of  the  flesh. 

This  analogy — dead,  and  so  severed  utterly  from  all  worldliness 
of  life  and  spirit,  even  as  Christ  died  from  earth — we  have  dis- 
cussed fully  above  under  v.  11-13.  Noticeably  here,  Paul  assumes 
that  they  were  not  to  think  of  themselves  as  yet  "  living  in  the 
world."  Why,  he  asks,  should  ye  allow  yourselves  to  be  dogma- 
tized over — subjected  to  the  imposition  of  human  ordinances — 
just  as  if  ye  were  still  living  in  this  world,  when  really  ye  are 
dead  to  all  that  is  properly  of  this  world? The  clause  in  paren- 
thesis— "Touch  not;  taste  not;  handle  not,"  etc.,  is  given  as  a 
specimen  of  the  dogmas  which  those  false  teachers  would  impose. 
The  clause  "  which  are  to  perish  with  the  using" — is  Paul's  own 
comment  upon  them,  indicating  their  worthlessness. — "  After  the 
commandments  and  doctrines  of  men  "  is  said  of  the  ordinances 
(v.  20)  and  should  be  read  in  close  connection  with  that  verse. 

"  Which  things  have  a  semblance  of  wisdom  " — and  therefore 
may  at  first  thought,  seem  very  religious.  "  Will-worship  " — self- 
imposed,  volunteered — as  if  in  the  true  love  of  worship,  and  in 
great  apparent  humility,  pretending  to  have  such  a  sense  of  un- 
worthiness  that  they  could  not  dare  approach  God  save  through 

the   mediation  of  angels. "  Neglecting  the  body,"   is   not   so 

strong  as  Paul's  word  which  means — unsparing  treatment  of  the 
body — not  sparing  it  from  self-imposed  sufiering;  pushing  their 
ascetic  notions  to  the  extent  of  self-torture,  and  so  appearing  to 
crucify  the  flesh.  But  Paul  condemns  this  because  it  is  self- 
imposed  ;  because  not  required  by  any  law  of  God ;  because  its 
real  root  was  not  humility  but  pride ;  and  because  it  had  in  it 
nothing  honorable  or  worthy  or  useful  as  meeting  the  legitimate 
demands  of  our  physical  nature. 


176  COLOSSI ANS. — CHAP.    III. 


CHAPTER   III. 


On  being  risen  with  Christ  (v.  1-4);  consequent  duty  of  putting 
to  death  fleshly,  sinful  passions  which  incur  God's  wrath  (v.  5-7); 
sins  named  again  which  should  be  discarded  (v.  8);  lying 
specially  included  (v.  9);  putting  off  all  that  pertained  to  the  old 
life  and  putting  on  the  new,  renewed  after  God  and  in  Christ 
(v.  10,  11);  specifying  what  should  be  put  on  (v.  12-14),  and  also 
the  graces  of  the  heart  (v.  15) ;  holding  and  teaching  the  word 
of  Christ  in  connection  with  Christian  song  and  much  thanks- 
giving (v.  16,  17);  duties  of  wives  and  husbands  (v.  18,  19);  of 
children  and  fathers  (v.  20,  21);  also  of  servants  (v.  22-25). 

1.  If  ye  then  be  risen  with  Christ,  seek  those  things  which 
are  above,  where  Christ  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of  God. 

2.  Set  your  affection  on  things  above,  not  on  things  on 
the  earth. 

3.  For  ye  are  dead,  and  your  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in 
God. 

4.  AVhen  Christ,  ivho  is  our  life,  shall  appear,  then  shall 
ye  also  appear  with  him  in  glory. 

"Risen  with  Christ"  follows  the  thought  of  the  passage  (2:  12), 
using  the  same  verb  and  in  the  same  form  of  it.  By  their 
Christian  profession,  and  hopefully,  in  fact  also,  they  were  risen 
from  their  old  state  of  death  in  sin,  even  as  Christ  rose  from  the 
grave  to  his  new  life  in  heavenly  glory;  yea  more — the  analogy 
is  carried  through  so  as  to  assume  that  they  have  risen  into  that 
new  sphere  of  heavenly  life,  though  yet  on  earth  bodily.  There- 
fore, let  them  live  consistently  with  their  professions  and  with 
the  new  relations  they  bear  to  Christ;  let  them  seek  the  things 
above  where  Christ  is  sitting  at  God's  right  hand — seek  them,  as 
is  soon  explained,  in  studious  thought  and  earnest  love;  live  in 

them. So  (v.  2) ;  put  mind  and  heart  upon  those  things  above, 

not  on  things  of  earth;  for  ye  have  professedly,  and  (it  should 
be)  truly  died  to  sin  and  to  worldly  things;  the  life-fountain  of 
your  activity,  altogether  invisible  to  the  world,  lies  "with  Christ 
in  God" — "with  Christ,"  in  the  sense  of  ])eing  like  his,  hidden 
as  his  is  hidden;  and  in  God  as  the  infinite  sphere  of  all  your 
life,  your  love,  your  aspirations,  your  voluntary  activities. 

The  world  will  see  the  nature  and  sources  of  your  life  when 
Clirist  shall  appear  and  before  all  the  universe  shall  recognize 
you  as  his  people.  Then  your  now  unseen  relations  to  Christ 
will  be  disclosed  and  the  blindest  worldliness  can  not  fail  to  see 
why  ye  are  living  above  the  world  while  yet  living  in  it. 

5.  Mortify  therefore  your  members  Avhicli  are  upon  the 


COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.    III.  177 

earth;  fornication,  uncleanness,  inordinate  affection,  evil  con- 
cupiscence, and  covetousness,  which  is  idolatry : 

6.  For  which  things'  sake  the  wrath  of  God  cometh  on 
the  children  of  disobedience: 

7.  In  the  which  ye  also  walked  sometime,  when  ye  lived 
in  them. 

The  word  "mortify,"  taken  literally,  translates  well  the  Greek 

word  which   means    put   to  death;    destroy    its    life-power. 

"Members"  is  the  remarkable  word  of  this  passage.  Carrying 
out  to  its  full  extent — not  to  say  forcing  to  its  extreme  literal 
sense — the  conception  of  human  flesh  as  the  seat  and  source  of 
sin — it  conceives  of  special  forms  of  sin  as  being  severally  mem- 
bers of  the  body — as  if  the  hand  were  one  sin;  the  foot  another; 
the  lustful  eye  another,  etc.  Paul  has  elsewhere  used  similar 
language,  though  slightly  less  bold  in  its  figure:  "If  ye,  through 
the  Spirit,  do  mortify  the  deeds  of  the  body,  ye  shall  live  "  (Rom. 
8 :  13)  ;  "  They  that  are  Christ's  have  crucified  the  flesh,  with  the 
ajffections  and  lusts" — the  last  word  explaining  what  he  means 

by  the  "flesh"  (Gal.  5:  24). They  are  said  to  be  "upon  the 

earth"  in  antithesis  with  living  in  heaven — with  thought  and 
heart  on  things  above. 

The  particular  forms  of  sin  here  enumerated  (v.  5)  scarcely 
need  exposition.  "Fornication  and  uncleanness"  are  violations 
of  the  seventh  commandment.  "Inordinate  affection,"  in  Greek 
one  word,  is  lustfulness,  strong  sensual  propensities,  from  which 
"evil  concupiscence"  is  scarcely  distinguishable,  since  this  must 
mean  passions  of  evil  sort. That  covetousness  should  be  de- 
clared to  be  "  idolatry,"  and  condemned  because  it  is  such,  is  at 
once  fearfully  true  in  its  nature,  and  should  be  startling  to  the 
dullest  moral  sense.  Covetousness  gives  the  heart's  love  and 
homage  to  Mammon — to  Gold  and  its  supposed  equivalents — even 
as  the  idol-worshiper  gives  his  heart  to  Moloch  or  to  Jupiter. 
The  language  of  his  heart  is — Gold,  be  thou  my^  God ! — Gold,  I 
give  thee  my  labor,  my  love,  my  very  heart,  my  life  ! — If  this  be 
not  idolatry,  what  can  be?  If  this  does  not  put  gold  in  the 
place  God  ought  to  hold,  what  can? 

On  account  of  these  sins,  God's  wrath  comes  (present  tense)-— 
comes  now  and  must  ever  come. The  words  "  upon  the  chil- 
dren of  disobedience"  are  of  doubtful  textual  authority  (omitted 
by  Tischendorf,  Alford).  The  omission,  however,  could  not 
change  Paul's  meaning.  His  corresponding  passage  (Eph.  5:  6) 
has  these  words. — In  your  former  ungodly  life  ye  practiced 
these  sins  and  gave  your  heart  full  scope  in  their  indulgence.  So 
much  had  Christianity  wrought  in  them  toward  a  heavenly  life 
on  earth. 

8.  But  now  ye  also  put  off  all  these;  anger,  wrath, 
malice,  blasphemy,  filthy  communication  out  of  your  mouth. 


178  COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.    III. 

But  now,  in  contrast  with  that  former  life,  put  ye  off  (impera- 
tive)— the  sense  being,  not  ye  do  put  off,  but  do  it. The  first 

three  are  passions  of  the  soul,  while  "  blasphemy  "  in  this  con- 
nection probably  refers  to  speaking  evil  of  fellow-men ;  as  filthy, 
foul-mouthed  language  certainly  does.  All  these  are  most  unsuit- 
able to  souls  new-born  to  God. 

9.  Lie  not  one  to  another,  seeing  that  ye  have  put  oflT  the 
old  man  with  his  deeds ; 

10.  And  have  put  on  the  new  man,  which  is  renewed  in 
knowledge  after  the  image  of  him  that  created  him : 

11.  Where  there  is  neither  Greek  nor  Jew,  circumcision 
nor  uncircumcision,  Barbarian,  Scythian,  bond  nor  free:  but 
Christ  is  all,  and  in  all. 

Lie  not  one  to  another,  having  put  off — seeing  or  since  ye  have 
put  off — the  old  man  with  all  that  belongs  to  him.  Lying  toward 
fellow-men  belongs  to  the  old  life — not  at  all  to  the  new  one. 

Of  the  new  man  two  descriptive  points  appear:  {a)  He  is  re- 
newed, not  precisely  in  knowledge,  but  into  [eis],  unto  better 
knowledge  and  a  correspondingly  better  life; — and  {h)  his  re- 
newed life  is  'according  to  the  image  of  God"  who  creates — 
gives  birth  to — this  new  man.  It  should  be  noticed  that  this 
conception  of  a  new  man  involves  the  idea  of  creation — a  neio 
creation.  This  is  the  figurative  conception  of  the  new  birth, 
usually  spoken  of  as  "  regeneration."  So  Paul  says  (2  Cor. 
5:  17),  "If  any  man  be  in  Christ,  there  is  a  new  creation."  In 
its  essence  this  figure  appears  first  in  the  Old  Testament:  "Create 
in  me  a  clean  heart"  (Psalms  51  :  10):  "A  new  heart  will  I  give 

you"  (Ezek.  36:  26). It  should  be  noticed  that  this  "being 

renewed"  is  put  in  the  present  tense,  not  in  the  past,  indicating 
a  process  still  progressing;  not  a  momentary  change  completed 
somewhere  in  the  past.  The  precise  translation  is — "Having  put 
on  the  new  man  who  is  heing  reneioed — is  undergoing  continuous 
renewal  unto  knowledge,"  etc.  ,So  Paul  (2  Cor.  4:  16) — "Our 
inner  man  is  experiencing  renewal  day  by  day" — where  the  verb 
is  in  the  present  tense  and  the  action  it  represents  is  in  present 

progress. "Renewed    unto    knowledge" — should   legitimately 

mean  not  only  renewed  by  means  of  truth  as  the  instrument 
used  ])y  the  Divine  Spirit,  but  renewed  unto  the  love  of  the  truth 
and  unto  the  richer  and  fuller  attainment  of  this  knowledge — 
a  fact  of  precious  significance,  and  far  too  little  apprehended 
and  appreciated. 

This  new  realm  of  life  knows  no  cnste  distinctions  of  race  (Jew 
or  Gentile);  or  of  rituality  (on  the  point  of  circumcision);  or  of 
culture  ("barbarian,"  etc.);  or  of  social  condition  (as  free  or  en- 
slaved);— all  such  distinctions  disappear  forever,  and  Christ  is  all 
and  in  all.  Christ  is  the  same  to  all;  gives  his  blessings  alike  to 
all;  knows  and  mnkos  no  discrimination  among  the  lost  sons  and 
dauditcrs  of  our  fallen  race. 


COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.    III.  179 

12.  Put  on  therefore,  as  the  elect  of  God,  holy  and  be- 
loved, bowels  of  mercies,  kindness,  humbleness  of  mmd, 
meekness,  long-suffering ; 

13.  Forbearing  one  another,  and  forgiving  one  another,  if 
any  man  have  a  quarrel  against  any :  even  as  Christ  for- 
gave you,  so  also  do  ye. 

14.  And  above  all  these  things  put  on  charity,  which  is 
the  bond  of  perfectness. 

"  Putting  on"  follows  the  conception  (in  v.  10)  of  "putting  on 
the  new  man,"  the  sense  being — cultivate,  cherish  these  moral 
qualities  of  character,  as  it  becomes  the  chosen  ones  of  God  who 
should  be  holy  as  they  are  really  beloved — all  these  considera- 
tions heightening  the  motives  which  should  press  them  to  obey 
this  precept.  Cherish,  put  in  exercise,  "bowels  of  mercy" — the 
singular  [mercy]  being  the  approved  text — and  the  bowels  being 
thought  of  as  the  seat  of  all  tender  afifection.  "  If  a  man  have" — 
not  a  "  quarrel "  but  a  complaint — a  cause  or  ground  of  blame 
against  any  one.  As  Christ  forgave  you,  so  should  ye  also  for- 
give. It  is  remarkable  how  often  this  duty  is  inculcated,  enforced 
by  this  special  motive  (because  Christ  forgives  us) ;  and  still  fur- 
ther enforced  by  the  superadded  fact — God  will  not  forgive  the 
unforgiving  soul:  if  ye  do  not  forgive  your  offending  brother, 
neither  will  God  forgive  you.  Paul  puts  the  exhortation  in  its 
general  form  (Eph.  4  :  32) :  "  Forgiving  one  another  even  as  God 
for  Christ's  sake  has  forgiven  you."  But  no  words  can  make  the 
point  more  clear  and  strong  than  Christ's  own;  e.  g.,  "  If  ye  for- 
give men  their  trespasses,  your  heavenly  Father  will  also  forgive 
you;  but  if  ye  forgive  not  men  their  trespasses,  neither  will  your 
Father  forgive  your  trespasses"  (Matt.  6:  14,  15).  (So  also 
Matt.  18:  21,  22,' 35.) 

The  question  of  casuistry  (we  might  say,  the  only  one)  per- 
taining to  this  subject,  is  this:  Is  the  command  Forgive,  condi- 
tioned upon  professed  repentance  ?  Am  I  bound  to  forgive  an 
offender  who  does  not  even  profess  to  repent  ? 

On  this  point  it  may  be  said : — (a)  God  never  forgives  the 
avowedly  unrepentant;  and  therefore  his  example  does  not  re- 
quire this  of  us; — (6)  Our  Lord  seems  to  assume  professed  re- 
pentance as  the  condition  :  "  If  he  trespass,  rebuke  ;  if  he  repent, 
forgive"  (Luke  17:  3).  But  on  the  other  hand,  our  Lord  insists 
upon  the  greatest  charity  toward  an  offender  who  confesses  (Luke 
17 :  4).  The  Christ-like,  loving  spirit  will  be  very  ready  to  re- 
ceive professions  of  repentance,  and  to  forgive  upon  the  basis  of 
faith  and  charity.  And  yet  further : — The  gentle,  loving  spirit, 
as  opposed  to  the  retaliating,  punishing  spirit,  is  always  in  order, 
for  it  should  be  remembered,  God  has  said,  "  Vengeance  is  mine  " 
— not  yours.  He  never  devolves  on  us  the  responsibility  to 
avenge  personal  injuries,  beyond  what  the  protection  of  the  pub- 
lic interests  may  require. 


180  COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.    III. 

15.  And  let  the  peace  of  God  rule  in  your  hearts,  to  the 
which  also  ye  are  called  in  one  body ;  and  be  ye  thankful. 

Let  the  peace  which  God  gives  ["  peace  of  God  "]  bear  sway 
in  your  heart — a  living  presence  and  power  there;  to  which 
blessed  state  ye  are  called,  being  really  but  one  body  of  which 
Christ  is  the  Head ;  so  that  there  can  legitimately  be  no  rival  con- 
flicting interests  among  you.  The  corrected  text  gives  Christ 
(rather  than  "  God  "): — "Let  the  peace  of  Ckristrule,"  etc. — "who 
is  our  peace "  (Eph.  2 :  14)  and  who  solemnly  bequeathed  his 
peace  to  his  people,  saying — "My  peace  I  give  unto  you"  (John 
14  :  27).  The  verb  "  rule  ''  *  suggests  the  guiding  and  the  inspi- 
ration which  helped  the  combatants  to  win  their  prize,  this  being 
the  word  in  use  for  that  service.  For  such  peace  and  for  all  its 
blessedness,  how  rich  should  be  our  thankfulness ! 

16.  Let  the  word  of  Christ  dwell  in  you  richly  in  all  wis- 
dom ;  teaching  and  admonishing  one  another  in  psalms  and 
hymns  and  spiritual  songs,  singing  with  grace  in  your  hearts 
to  the  Lord. 

17.  And  whatsoever  ye  do  in  word  or  deed,  do  all  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  giving  thanks  to  God  and  the 
Father  by  him. 

The  word  of  Christ — that  which  he  taught — let  it  dwell  in  you 
richly.  "In  all  wisdom" — should  qualify  your  teaching  and  ad- 
monishing one  another,  and  not  the  dwelling  of  Christ's  words 
in  you.  The  punctuation  in  our  authorized  version  is  misleading. 
Sacred  song  should  be  made  a  vehicle  of  inspiring  truth.  The 
heart's  song,  unheard  of  men,  makes  rich  and  grateful  melody  in 
the  ear  of  God.  So  Eph.  5:  19:  And  do  all  in  the  love  of 
Jesus'  name — out  of  regard  to  him — his  name  and  his  love  being 
present  and  effective,  not  only  in  all  your  sacred  songs  but  in  all 
your  Christian  life. 

18.  AVives,  submit  yourselves  unto  your  own  husbands,  as 
it  is  fit  in  the  Lord. 

19.  Husbands,  love  your  wives,  and  be  not  bitter  against 
them. 

The  mutual  duties  of  wives  and  husbands  arc  less  fully  devel- 
oped here  than  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  the  general  doc- 
trine, however,  ])eing  entirely  the  same,  "In  the  Lord,"  signify- 
ing in  the  sphere  of  his  presence,  of  his  claims ;  and  on  your  part, 
the  sphere  of  love  and  obedience  to  his  will — it  is  specially  fit- 
ting that  ye,  wives,  should  yield  ohedicnce  to  your  husbands. 
What  was  proper  before  you  were  "in  the  Lord  "  is  doubly  proper 
now. 


COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.    III.  181 

20.  Children,  obey  your  parents  in  all  things :  for  this  is 
well  pleasing  unto  the  Lord. 

21.  Fathers,  provoke  not  your  children  to  anger,  lest  they 
be  discouraged. 

So  of  the  mutual  duties  of  children  and  parents.  Notice  that  here 
(as  in  Eph.  6 :  4)  mothers  are  not  named — perhaps  omitted  be- 
cause maternal  affection  may  for  the  most  part  be  relied  on  to 
shield  mothers  against  the  abuse  of  parental  authority.  "  Lest 
they  be  discouraged" — being  so  powerless  against  a  father's  se- 
verity ;  and  this  result — disheartening  a  child  from  all  attempts 
to  please — being  so  disastrous  to  both  parties.  How  tenderly 
watchful  against  this  result  should  every  father  be  !  "  Obeying 
in  all  things,"  needs  no  formal  limitation  (e.  g.)  to  things  not  op- 
posed to  God's  will,  this  exception  being  really  too  obvious  to 
need  to  be  made.  God  could  never  require  or  expect  the  son  to 
obey  his  earthly  father  against  his  Heavenly  Father. 

22.  Servants,  obey  in  all  things  your  masters  according  to 
the  flesh  ;  not  with  eye-service,  as  men-pleasers ;  but  in  sin- 
gleness of  heart,  fearing  God : 

23.  And  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  it  heartily,  as  to  the  Lord, 
and  not  unto  men  ; 

24.  Knowing  that  of  the  Lord  ye  shall  receive  the  re- 
ward of  the  inheritance  :  for  ye  serve  the  Lord  Christ. 

25.  But  he  that  doeth  wrong  shall  receive  for  the  WTong 
which  he  hath  done :  and  there  is  no  respect  of  persons. 

The  duties  of  Christian  servants  are  put  at  once  clearly  and 
strongly.  They  should  serve,  not  to  please  the  earthly  master 
but  the  heavenly: — this  to  be  done  heartily,  as  all  service  for 
Christ  should  always  be  done : — moreover  done  as  knowing  that 
their  reward  is  sure  in  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light — 
just  as  sure  as  though  they  were  serving  Christ  on  an  earthly 
throne  instead  of  serving  an  earthly  master  at  his  footstool.  God 
looks  at  the  spirit  of  obedience,  and  at  nothing  else;  he  rewards 
upon  that  basis  and  upon  no  other.  In  the  last  clause  of  v.  24, 
the  best  textual  authorities  omit  the  word  "  for,"  reading  it  sim- 
ply— "  Ye  serve  the  Lord  Christ."  This  carries  its  own  logical 
significance,  with  no  need  of  saying  "for." 


3:^c 


CHAPTER    IV. 

To  masters  (v.  1).  Exhortation  to  prayer,  especially  for  the 
apostle  and  his  associates  (v.  2-4);  their  walk  before  the  ungodly; 
their  speech  to  be  ordered  wisely  (v.  5,  6) ;  Tychicus  and  Onesi- 


182  COLOSSI ANS. — CHAP.   IV. 

mus,  bearing  this  letter,  will  report  the  state  of  things  with  Paul 
and  at  Rome  (v.  7-9);  various  salutations  (v.  10,  11),  and  espe- 
cially from  Epaphras,  first  their  fellow-citizen,  and  then  their 
pastor  (v.  12,  13) ;  their  greetings  (v.  14,  15) ;  apostolic  letters  to 
be  interchanged  for  the  mutual  benefit  of  churches  (v.  16) ; 
charge  to  Archippus  (v.  17),  and  the  apostle's  final  salutations 
(V.  18). 

1.  Masters,  give  unto  your  servants  that  which  is  just  and 
equal ;  knowing  that  ye  also  have  a  Master  in  heaven. 

We  can  see  no  reason  why  the  critic  who  divided  this  epistle 
into  chapters  should  have  drawn  a  chapter  line  between  the  duties 
of  servants  and  those  of  masters.  On  every  right  principle,  this 
V.  1  ought  to  have  been  put  at  the  end  of  chapter  3. 

Justice  and  equity  should  rule  the  master  in  his  whole  bearing 
toward  his  servants,  for  his  own  Master  in  heaven  will  hold  him 
to  this.  He  should  be  aware  that  his  whole  treatment  of  his 
servants  must  be  reviewed  before  the  higher  court. 

On  the  question  of  the  right  and  the  wrong  of  slavery  and  the 
duty  of  emancipation,  Paul  simply  announced  the  great  princi- 
ples which  should  govern  both  the  slave-holder  and  the  law-making 
power,  and  then  left  them  upon  the  conscience  to  work  out  their 
results  under  all  the  light  of  circumstances.  It  is  a  fiict  of  his- 
tory that  the  gospel  did  ere  long  work  out  emancipation.  Its 
doctrine  of  universal  brotherhood,  of  equality  of  rights,  of  amen- 
ability to  one  common  Master  in  heaven,  of  rendering  to  the 
servant  what  is  just  and  equal,  wrought  silently  yet  rapidly  to- 
ward this  result,  and  could  not  possibly  rest  in  any  thing  short 
of  it. 

2.  Continue  in  prayer,  and  watch  in  the  same  with  thanks- 
giving ; 

3.  Withal  praying  also  for  us,  that  God  would  open  unto 
us  a  door  of  utterance,  to  speak  the  mystery  of  Christ,  for 
which  I  am  also  in  bonds : 

4.  That  I  may  make  it  manifest,  as  I  ought  to  speak. 

It  is  safe  to  assume  that  the  burden  of  prayer  upon  Paul's  own 
heart  is  well  indicated  by  his  request  for  the  prayers  of  the  Co- 
lossian  brethren — viz.,  that  God  would  burst  open  his  prison 
doors  and  let  him  preach  ;  would  also  open  providential  doors  of 
access  in  all  directions  and  give  him  all  boldness  to  preach  Christ 
in  the  face  of  fiercest  persecution  with  never  a  fear  of  conse- 
quences, and  no  withholding  of  the  gospel  message.  It  must  have 
been  a  fearful  strain  upon  his  patience  to  lie  there  two  long  years, 
knowing  every  day  that  whole  cities  and  nations  were  perishing 
in  their  heathen  darkness,  while  he  would  but  could  not  go  to 
them  with  the  light  of  life.  Will  the  brethren  join  and  help  his 
burdened  heart  in  this  prayer? 


COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.   IV.  183 

5.  Walk  in  wisdom  toward  them  that  are  without,  re- 
deeming the  time. 

6.  Let  your  speech  he  always  with  grace,  seasoned  with 
salt,  that  ye  may  know  how  ye  ought  to  answer  every  man. 

We  may  thank  God  for  giving  Paul  some  leisure  to  write  such 
epistles.  Let  his  written  words  stir  Christian  hearts  to  duty  all 
down  the  ages ! 

Walk  in  wisdom  toward  those  outside  the  church.  No  busi- 
ness, no  labor,  no  service  whatsoever,  demands  wisdom  more  than 

this. On  redeeming  the  time,  see  Eph.  5 :  16.     It  is  here  as  one 

of  the  dictates  of  Christian  wisdom.  Buy  up  golden  opportuni- 
ties ;  seize  them  if  they  come  within  your  reach,  as  the  merchant- 
man buys  all   best  commodities,  at  the  right  time,  and  careful 

never  to  miss  the  best. In  common  conversation,  words  spoken 

"with  grace"  will  be  wise,  sensible,  winning  /avor  (the  more 
precise  sense  of  "  grace  "),  which  must  imply  that  both  words  and 
the  spirit  that  is  in  and  with  them  are  conciliating,  modest,  affec- 
tionate. The  salt  that  seasons  speech  is,  perhaps,  best  defined  as 
good   sense;  the  wisdom  that  discerns   timeliness;  the  fitnesses 

of  social  life  ;  the  best  means  of  access  to  the  hearts  of  men. 

How  ye  ought  to  answer,  not  precisely  "  every  man,"  but  each 
individual  man.  Studying  your  men  carefully  and  thoroughly, 
you  will  find  no  two  alike,  and  you  must  needs  adjust  yourself  to 
men  individually. 

7.  All  my  state  shall  Tychicus  declare  unto  you,  who  is  a 
beloved  brother,  and  a  faithful  minister  and  fellow-servant 
in  the  Lord  : 

8.  Whom  I  have  sent  unto  you  for  the  same  purpose, 
that  he  might  know  your  estate,  and  comfort  your  hearts ; 

9.  With  Onesimus,  a  faithful  and  beloved  brother,  who  is 
one  of  you.  They  shall  make  known  unto  you  all  things 
which  are  done  here. 

Both  Tychicus  and  Onesimus  were  old  residents  of  Colosse ; 
and  having  been,  we  know  not  just  how  long,  with  and  about 
Paul,  could  give  the  brethren  at  Colosse  all  the  particulars  of  his 
case. 

10.  Aristarchus  my  fellow-prisoner  saluteth  you,  and  Mar- 
cus, sister's  son  to  Barnabas,  (touching  whom  ye  received 
commandments  :  if  he  come  unto  you,  receive  him  ;) 

11.  And  Jesus,  which  is  called  Justus,  who  are  of  the  cir- 
cumcision. These  only  are  my  fellow-workers  unto  the  king- 
dom of  God,  which  have  been  a  comfort  unto  me. 

Of  the  imprisonment  of  Aristarchus,  this  is  our  only  notice. 
Luke  speaks  of  him  as  "a  man  of  Macedonia,  Paul's  companion 
in  travel;"  caught  in  the  great  mob  at  Ephesus  (Acts  19:  29);  as 
again  at  Thessalonica,  accompanying  Paul  into  Asia  (20 :  4) ;  and 


184  COLOSSIANS. — CHAP.    IV. 

yet  again,  "  a  Macedonian  of  Thcssalonica,"  with  the  group  of 
friends  who  accompanied  Paul  the  prisoner  to.  Rome  (27:  2). 
Coupled  with  these  notices  is  the  remarkable  fact  that  in  Paul's 
letter  to  Philemon  (v.  24),  written  apparently  very  near  the  same 
time  with  this  to  Colosse,  he  and  Mark,  with  others,  are  called 
"  my  fellow-laborers,"  while  Epaphras  is  his  fellow-prisoner — the 
two  having,  it  would  seem,  interchanged  their  respective  relations. 
Was  this  done  under  the  action  of  the  Roman  civil  authorities, 
or  were  they  allowed  to  change  places  at  their  will,  one  to  relieve 
the  other  ?     Xo  historic  evidence  has  come  down  to  decide. 

Marcus  (Mark)  we  are  glad  to  see  once  more  back  in  the  con- 
fiding sympathies  of  the  great  apostle,  after  what  Luke  has  told 
us  of  his  apparent  instability  or  timidity,  and  the  great  trial  it 
brought  upon  this  dauntless  apostle  (Acts  15 :  37-39). 

It  is  conceded  that  this  Mark  is  the  evangelist  historian.  These 
three  men,  said  to  be  "  of  the  circumcision,"  and  hence  probably 
Jews,  were  his  only  fellow-laborers  of  Jewish  antecedents  who 
had  wrought  with  him  in  the  interests  of  the  gospel  kingdom  and 
had  been  his  comforters. 

12.  Epaphras,  who  is  one  of  you,  a  servant  of  Christ, 
saluteth  you,  always  laboring  fervently  for  you  in  prayers, 
that  ye  may  stand  perfect  and  complete  in  all  the  will  of 
God. 

13.  For  I  bear  him  record,  that  he  hath  a  great  zeal  for 
you,  and  thera  that  are  in  Laodicea,  and  them  in  Hierapolis. 

Epaphras  is  brought  to  view  above  (1:  7,  8),  where  see  Notes. 
This  warm  testimony  to  his  prayerfulness  and  fidelity  in  gospel 
work  is  refreshing,  both  in  itself,  and  as  a  bright  example;  and 
yet  more,  in  view  of  the  comfort  which  the  imprisoned  apostle 

must  have  had  in  such  a  friend  by  his  side. The  particular 

point  of  his  prayer  for  the  brethren  at  Colosse  deserves  attention : 
That  "they  might  stand  perfect  and  complete  in  all  the  will  of 
God" — "perfect"  indicating  their  mature  and  fully  developed 
Christian  character;  "complete"  indicating  their  full  persuasion 
and  entire  confidence  in  all  gospel  truth,  as  opposed  to  crude 
conceptions  or  unsettled  convictions.  The  phrase,  "  in  all  the 
will  of  God,"  suggests  practical  duty  as  well  as  doctrinal  truth. — 
"Great  zeal  for  you" — but  Paul's  word  for  "zeal"  rather  means 
labor,  yet  whether  otherwise  than  in  prayer  does  not  appear  from 
the  context. 

14.  Luke  the  beloved  physician,  and  Demas,  greet  you. 

15.  Salute  the  brethren  which  are  in  Laodicea,  and  Nym- 
phas,  and  the  church  which  is  in  his  house. 

Luke,  supposed  to  be  identical  with  the  evangelist  historian 
and  the  writer  of  the  Acts,  is  noticed  rarely  in  Paul's  epistles. 
This  notice  suggests  both  his  profession  and  his  amiable  charac- 
ter.    Being  one  of  the  few  friends  who  identified  their  lives  and 


COLOSSIANS.— CHAP.    IV.  185 

fortunes  with  Paul  the  prisoner  and  went  with  him  from  Csesarea 
to  Rome,  it  is  pleasant  to  find  him  there  at  Paul's  right  hand  at 
this  point  near  the  close  of  his  first  imprisonment,  and  with  him 
yet  again  near  the  close  of  his  second  and  last  imprisonment  (2 
Tim.  4:  11),  where  Paul  says:  "Only  Luke  is  with  me" — Demas 

having  forsaken  me  through  his  love  for  thi^  present  world. 

"The  church  which  is  in  thy  house,"  suggests  the  group  of  be- 
lievers who  made  his  house  their  accustomed  place  of  worship. 
A  similar  allusion  to  "the  church  in  the  house  of  Priscilla  and 
Aquila  appears  in  Rom.  16  :  5. 

16.  And  when  this  epistle  is  read  among  you,  cause  that 
it  be  read  also  in  the  church  of  the  Laodiceans;  and  that 
ye  likcAvise  read  the  epistle  from  Laodicea. 

See  Introduction  (p.  150)  for  remarks  on  this  practice  of  in- 
terchanging the  letters  received  from  the  apostle  for  mutual  edi- 
fication. This  reference  to  a  letter  of  his  to  Laodicea  seems  to 
show  conclusively  that  some  of  Paul's  genuine  letters  to  churches 
are  lost,  and  that  only  a  part  were  brought  into  the  sacred  canon. 
On  the  question  whether  those  lost  epistles  were  inspired  equally 
with  those  which  were  preserved,  we  have  no  positive  knowl- 
edge, yet  I  see  no  reasonable  ground  for  the  negative  opinion. 
How  it  happened  that  some  were  omitted,  and  for  what  definite 
reasons,  if  for  any  other  than  neglect,  are  points  upon  which 
conjectures  are  our  only  data,  and  these  would  be  of  small  ac- 
count. 

17.  And  say  to  Archippus,  Take  heed  to  the  ministry 
which  thou  hast  received  in  the  Lord,  that  thou  fulfill  it. 

Archippus  had  been  recently  installed  their  pastor  (we  may 
reasonably  suppose),  so  that  Paul's  deep  sympathy  for  that  church 
and  his  blended  sympathy  and  love  for  their  new  pastor  dictated 
this  very  brief  but  richly  pregnant  "  charged  This  gospel  min- 
istry which  thou  hast  received  from  the  Lord  Jesus — this  mo- 
mentous trust — take  heed  that  thou  fulfill.  Let  never  a  duty  in- 
volved in  it  be  neglected ;  le-t  its  labors  be  thy  joy  and  thy  life — 
that  so  thou  mayest  render  thy  account  at  last  in  peace  and  tri- 
umph. 

18.  The  salutation  by  the  hand  of  me  Paul.  Remember 
my  bonds.     Grace  he  with  you.     Amen. 

The  salutation  in  his  own  hand,  and  the  request  that  they  would 
remember  his  bonds  for  Christ — that  long  and  severe  trial  to  his 
patience  and  his  faith — close  this  precious  epistle. 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  THESSALONIANS. 

I. 


INTKODUCTION. 

The  inquiring  Bible  student  will  study  this  epistle  with 
greater  interest  and  profit  after  a  brief  attention  to  the  fol- 
lowing points : 

I.   The  locality  and  history  of  this  city  Tliessalonica : 
II.  The  church ; — when  and  by  whom  founded  : 

III.  The  author  and  date  of  this  epistle : 

IV.  Its  occasion  and  object,  coupled  with  its  peculiar 
points,  and  its  analogies  with  other  epistles. 

I.  In  the  apostolic  age,  Thessalonica  was  a  rich  and  pop- 
ulous city ;  under  the  Eoman  rule  made  the  capital  of  the 
province  of  Macedonia.  It  was  situated  at  the  head  of  the 
Sinus  Thermaicus,  one  of  the  longest  arms'  of  the  Archipel- 
ago :  350  miles  west  of  Constantinople ;  100  south-west  of 
PhiJippi ;  200  north  by  west  from  Athens.  Under  its  mod- 
ern name,  Saloniki,  it  still  retains  much  of  its  ancient  im- 
portance, having  a  population  of  60,000  or  70,000.  It  was 
therefore  one  of  the  salient  points  in  that  Macedonia  to  which 
Paul  was  divinely  summoned  by  the  angel-voice — "  Come 
over  into  Macedonia,  and  help  us." 

II.  The  church  was  founded  by  Paul,  having  Silas  for  his 
fellow-laborer.  In  a  very  few  verses  (Acts  17:  1-9),  Luke 
has  recorded  how  these  two  men,  fresh  from  their  one 
night's  wonderful  experience  under  scourging  and  imprison- 
ment at  Philippi,  moved  on  through  Amphipolis  and  Apol- 
lonia  to  Thessalonica,  and  there,  in  pursuance  of  their  mis- 
sionary policy  of  seizing  the  great  strategic  points  for  the 
conquest  of  the  nations  to  Christ,  they  opened  their  gospel 
battery  upon  this  great  city.  Finding  there  a  synagogue  of 
Jews,  "Paul,  as  liis  manner  was,  went  in  unto  them,  and 
three  successive  Sabbath  days  reasoned  with  them  out  of 
their  common  Scriptures,  opening  and  alleging  that  Christ 
must  needs  have  suffered  and  risen  from  the  dead,  and  that 
this  Jesus  whom  I  preach  to  you  is  that  very  Christ."     In 

(180) 


INTRODUCTION.  187 

the  result,  some  believed,  and  united  themselves  with  Paul 
and  Silas ;  also  of  devout  Greeks,  a  yet  greater  number,  and 

of  prominent  women  not  a  few. But  here  again  Paul's 

former  experience  repeated  itself;  the  unbelieving  Jews, 
envious  and  bigoted  to  madness,  raised  a  mob;  "set  all  the 
city  in  an  uproar  ;  "  managed  to  strike  a  responsive  chord  by 
appealing  to  the  political  prejudices  and  passions  of  leading 
citizens,  who  for  self-protection  (as  they  deemed)  took  bail 
of  Jason  and  certain  other  brethren  as  security  against  riot 
and  disturbance  of  the  peace,  and  so  released  the  Christian 
brethren.     Under  these  circumstances  nothing  remained  but 

to  send  the   apostles  away. Thus  suddenly  were   Paul's 

personal  labors  in  this  great  city  closed  by  violence.  But 
the  seed  was  planted.  Other  brethren,  less  prominent  than 
he,  and  hence  less  likely  to  arouse  opposition,  probably  con- 
tinued the  work  he  had  begun.  It  is  plain  that  Paul's  work 
there  was  pressed  with  all  the  prodigious  energy  of  his  in- 
tense nature.  His  back  still  raw  from  the  scourging  at 
Philippi,  his  soul  stirred  to  a  lofty  enthusiasm  and  a  daunt- 
less heroism  by  this  vindictive  opposition  and  by  the  press- 
ure of  stern  obstacles,  he  poured  forth  the  torrents  of  his 
eloquence  and  lavished  his  rich  sympathies  without  stint 
upon  the  people  whom  he  could  reach.  Did  he  ever  labor 
more  severely,  or  feel  more  intensely,  or  move  upon  men's 
souls  with  mightier  inspiration  drawn  from  on  high?  It 
was  with  him  the  labor  of  but  a  few  days  to  lay  the  foun- 
dations of  this  Christian  church ;  but  those  were  days  ever 
memorable  in  the  history  of  the  great  apostle.  "VVe  shall 
not  half  appreciate  these  two  epistles  unless  we  hold  well  in 
mind  the  moral  atmosphere  in  which  that  enterprise  in 
church-planting  had  its  birth. 

III.  That  Paul  wrote  this  epistle,  no  sensible  critic  has 

ever    doubted. The    time    was    apparently   not    many 

months  after  his  expulsion.  His  very  great  solicitude  for 
their  spiritual  welfare  weighed  so  heavily  upon  his  soul 
that  at  last,  when  he  could  endure  his  burden  no  longer  (1 
Thess.  3:  1,  2),  he  "thought  it  good  to  be  left  at  Athens 
alone,"  and  to  spare  Timothy  to  go  and  see  the  brethren  at 
Thessalonica  and  bring  him  word  as  to  their  state.  They 
(Timothy  and  Silas)  rejoined  him  at  Corinth  (Acts  18 :  5), 
and  there,  during,  apparently,  the  very  early  months  of  his 
year  and  a  half s  residence  in  that  city,  Paul  wrote  this 
epistle.  Manifestly  it  was  occasioned  by  the  intelligence  re- 
ceived through  Timothy  and  was  designed   to  meet  their 


188  INTRODUCTION. 

case  as  thus  reported. This  fixes  its  date  proximately  in 

the  early  part  of  A.  D.  53,  and  ranks  this  as  in  time  the 
earliest  of  Paul's  epistles. 

IV.  The  occasion  and  objects  of  the  epistle  are  readily 
gathered  from  the  epistle  itself.  Foremost  among  the  ob- 
jects was  the  warm  outpouring  of  his  joyful  sympathies  in 
gratitude  and  thanksgiving  to  God  for  the  good  report  he 
had  heard  of  their  steadfastness  in  love  and  faith,  and  of 
their  patient  endurance  of  persecution.  The  occasion  awak- 
ened many  reminiscences  of  his  own  experience  there,  to 
which  he  gives  free  expression. Moreover,  it  is  quite  ob- 
vious that  opinions  were  current  there  in  regard  to  the 
second  advent  of  the  Lord,  which  in  some  respects  were  ex- 
erting a  very  undesirable  influence,  and  therefore  called  for 
correction.  In  particular,  they  were  entertaining  the  notion 
that  their  deceased  Christian  friends  would  be,  as  compared 
with  themselves,  at  a  disadvantage  in  the  expected  near 
coming  of  the  Lord.  What  their  doctrine  was  in  regard  to 
a  resurrection  of  the  righteous  dead,  is  not  altogether  clear ; 
but  it  is  plain  that  they  sorrowed  greatly  and  very  unrea- 
sonably over  their  Christian  dead  as  likely  to  miss  the  joy 
of  the  Lord's  coming.     This  error,  Paul  deemed  it  vital  to 

correct. Moreover,  there  are  repeated  injunctions  against 

disorder,  unreasonable  excitement  and  neglect  of  their  ordi- 
nary basiness — all  apparently  originating  in  their  notion  of 
the  near  coming  of  the  Lord.  These  disorders  and  undue 
excitements  Paul  deemed  it  very  necessary  to  rebuke. 
These  points  are  sufficiently  prominent  to  justify  their  being 

regarded   as  the  special  objects   of   the  epistle. In   the 

main,  however,  Paul  has  much  joy  in  the  steadfast  piety  of 
the  great  body  of  the  converts,  and  therefore  devotes  his 
letter  mostly  to  instructions  and  exhortations  looking  toward 
a  higher,  purer  Christian  life. 

This  epistle  has  many  points  of  close  analogy  with  that  to 
the  Philippians,  e.  g.,  in  its  general  tone  of  commendation; 
its  warm,  outgushing  sympathy  and  its  free  expressions  of 
joyful  confidence  in  their  Christian  integrity  and  earnest- 
ness of  devotion.  In  neither  do  we  find  allusions  to  flagrant 
immoralities,  or  to  that  class  of  doctrinal  errors  which  ap- 
peared early  in  the  churches  of  Asia  Minor. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  these  ei)i.stles  to  Thessalonica  are 
earlier  by  several  years  than  any  other — by  nearly  ten 
years  earlier  than  those  written  from  Kume  during  his  first 
imjmsonnicnt  there. 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  THESSALONIANS. 

I. 


CHAPTER    I. 


Introduction  (v.  1) :  thanksgiving  to  God  for  the  fruits  of  grace 
among  the  converts  there  (v.  2-4);  reminiscences  of  his  labors 
there  and  of  the  attending  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  (v.  5);  and 
of  the  blessed  results  in  their  Christian  life  and  labors  (v.  6-8), 
reproducing  the  same  fruits  all  abroad  (v.  9,  10). 

1.  Paul,  and  Silvanus,  and  Timotheus,  unto  the  church 
of  the  Thessalonians  ivhich  is  in  God  the  Father,  and  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ:  Grace  be  unto  you,  and  peace,  from  God 
our  Father,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

The  names  of  Silvanus  and  Timotheus,  are  here,  not  as  joint 
authors  in  this  epistle,  but  as  associated  with  Paul  in  Christian 
sympathy  and  labors.  Thay  send  their  mutual  salutations  and 
benedictions,  and  doubtless  are  with  Paul  in  the  "  we"  (v.  2),  giv- 
ing thanks  to  God  and  of  one  heart  with  Paul  in  prayer  for  the 
brethren. Silvanus,  known  uniformly  as  Silas  in  Acts  but  al- 
ways Silvanus  in  the  epistles,  appears  first  (Acts  15 :  22)  as  one 
of  the  "  chief  men  among  the  brethren"  of  the  church  in  Jerusa- 
lem, and  sent  by  them  with  the  decrees  of  the  great  council.  He 
was  "  a  prophet";  labored  usefully  at  Antioch  (Acts  15  :  32),  and 
was  chosen  by  Paul  to  take  the  place,  by  his  side,  of  Barnabas  and 
Mark  in  his  second  great  missionary  tour,  the  history  of  which 
begins  with  Acts  15  :  40.  He  will  be  remembered  as  with  Paul  at 
Philippi  (Acts  16 :  19)  and  at  Thessalonica  (Acts  17 :  4),  attending 
him  also  to  Berea,  but  left  there  while  Paul  went  on  to  Athens 
alone  ;  and  not  long  after,  rejoining  him  at  Corinth  from  Macedo- 
nia (Acts  18:  5).  Paiil's  second  letter  to  Corinth  (1  :  19)  recog- 
nizes both  Silvanus  and  Timothy  as  his  fellow-laborers  there. 

Timothy  appears  first  at  Lystra  (Acts  16  :  1-3)  a  city  of  Lyca- 
onia,  Asia  Minor.  He  was  then  apparently  young,  but  religiously 
trained.  He  went  with  Paul  to  Macedonia  and  became  one  of 
his  most  constant  and  devoted  associates  during  the  greater  part 
if  not  even  the  whole  of  his  subsequent  life.  (See  more  in  the  In- 
troduction to  1  Timothy), 

The  best  textual  authorities  close  this  v.  1  with  the  words  "  grace 
and  peace,"  omitting  all  that  follows. 

Q  (189) 


190  I.    THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.    I. 

2.  We  give  thanks  to  God  always  for  you  all,  making 
mention  of  you  in  our  prayers; 

3.  Remembering  without  ceasing  your  work  of  faitli,  and 
labor  of  love,  and  patience  of  hope  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
in  the  sight  of  God  and  our  Father ; 

4.  Knowing,  brethren  beloved,  your  election  of  God. 

It  would  be  unpardonable  not  to  notice  what  Paul  could  say  of 
himself  and  his  associates  as  to  prayer  and  thanksgiving.  "  Always 
giving  thanks,"  making  mention  of  each  church  by  name  with 
prayer  in  their  behalf — verily  this  is  a  rich  example,  not  only  for 
all  gospel  ministers  but  for  all  Christian  people  as  well.  If  Paul 
was  great  in  eloquence,  in  patient  endurance,  in  moral  heroism ; 
not  less  was  he  great  in  the  depth  of  his  Christian  sympathies  and 
in  the  natural  outpouring  of  his  soul  in  perpetual  prayer. 

As  to  the  brethren  of  that  church,  the  qualities  in  their  charac- . 
ter  and  the  features  of  their  Christian  life  which  he  joyfully  re- 
membered as  incentives  to  thanksgiving  and  prayer  are  here; — 
"  Your  work  of  faith  " — your  faith-inspired  work — prompted  and 
energized  by  faith; — ^your  "  labor  of  love" — labor  begotten  of  love 
— labor  not  done  grudgingly  but  lovingly; — your  "patience" 
born  of  "  hope"  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Thus  faith,  love,  and 
hope  in  the  Lord,  were  the  inspiring  power  unto  all  their  labor 

and  endurance  for  Christ  and  his  cause. All  these  Christian 

labors  and  graces  are  of  the  sort  that  live,  as  it  were,  in  the  sight 

of  God  our  Father; — that  flourish  under  his  eye. In   such 

manifestations  of  spirit  and  of  life,  Paul  sees  the  evidence  of 
their  election  of  God.  Nothing  short  of  that,  or  other  than  that, 
could  account  for  such  fruits  of  holiness. 

5.  For  our  gospel  came  not  unto  you  in  word  only,  but 
also  in  power,  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  in  much  assur- 
ance ;  as  ye  know  what  manner  of  men  we  were  among  you 
for  your  sake. 

The  Greek  word  for  "came"  has  hero  the  sense — developed 
itself  toward  you ;  made  its  presence  felt  upon  you.  It  proved  a 
gospel,  not  in  word  only  or  chiefly,  but  in  power,  in  tlie  Holy 
Ghost,  and  in  the  strongest  convictions — those  of  real  assurance. 
But  we  need  not  speak  of  these  things;  for  ye  know  what  sort  of 
men  we  were  among  y<ju,  la)>oring  for  your  salvation. — It  is  obvi- 
ous that  this  description  of  the  way  the  gospel  came  and  wrought 
among  tiiem  refers  rather  to  the  apostles  than  to  the  Thcssalo- 
nians — to  the  apostles  primarily.  It  was  first  of  all  a  gospel  of 
power  in  their  own  souls — a  gospel  made  mighty  upon  their  own 
hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost — a  gospel  which  held  sway  over  their 

souls   with    the    potency  of    resistless  ^conviction. Men   who 

preach  the  gospel  under  such  convictions — its  truths  thus  mighty 
upon  their  own  souls  through  the  Holy  Spirit — are  never  wont  to 

labor  in  vain.- Very  similar  testimony  to  this  Paul  bears  as  to 

his  preaching  near  this  same  time,  in  Corinth:   "And  my  speech 


I.    THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.   I.  191 

and  my  preaching  were  not  with  enticing  words  of  man's  wisdom, 
but  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power — that  your  faith 
should  not  stand  in  the  wisdom  of  men  but  in  the  power  of  God" 
(1  Cor.  2:  4,5). 

6.  And  ye  became  followers  of  us,  and  of  the  Lord,  hav- 
ing received  the  word  in  much  affliction,  with  joy  of  the 
Holy  Ghost: 

7.  So  that  ye  were  ensamples  to  all  that  believe  in  Mace- 
donia and  Achaia. 

This  imitation  of  the  apostles  and  of  the  Lord  also  was  shown 
specially  in  the  point  of  receiving  the  gospel  heartily,  despite  of 
the  persecutions  then  raging.  Their  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost  was 
the  more  rich  and  precious  for  the  severity  of  their  trial  and  the 
strength  of  their  faith. — So  signally  strong  was  their  steadfast  en- 
durance that  their  example  sent  its  influence  abroad  over  all  Mace- 
donia and  Achaia.  These  two  provinces  under  the  Roman  regime 
comprised  the  entire  territory  of  ancient  Greece  and  Macedonia. 

^  8.  For  from  you  sounded  out  the  word  of  the  Lord  not 
only  in  Macedonia  and  Achaia,  but  also  in  every  place  your 
faith  to  God- ward  is  spread  abroad ;  so  that  we  need  not  to 
speak  any  thing. 

9.  For  they  themselves  show  of  us  what  manner  of  enter- 
ing in  we  had  unto  you,  and  how  ye  turned  to  God  from 
idols  to  serve  the  living  and  true  God; 

10.  And  to  wait  for  his  Son  from  heaven,  whom  he  raised 
from  the  dead,  even  Jesus,  which  delivered  us  from  the  wrath 
to  come. 

The  expression — "  sounded  out,"  is  very  significant — as  if  the 
gospel  word  which  came  to  them  rang  out,  reproducing  itself,  its 
sound  echoing  and  re-echoing,  till,  gathering  strength  from  each 
reverberation,  its  notes  were  prolonged  and  wafted  on  and  on,  not 
only  pervading  those  entire  provinces  but  regions  indefinitely  far 
beyond.  This  gathering  up  of  the  gospel  voices  of  testimony  and 
proclamation  into  one  mighty  volume  of  sound,  swelling  away 
into  distant  lands,  is  a  beautiful  representation  of  the  self-perpetu- 
ating forces  of  the  true  gospel  in  human  souls.  All  the  world 
came  to  know  the  faith  and  the  spiritual  power  of  that  Thessalo- 
nian  church.  Paul  seems  to  say  that  it  left  little  more  for  himself 
and  his  associates  to  do. 

They  themselves — the  people  of  those  provinces — taking  the 
gospel  from  the  Thessalonian  converts,  shelved  in  their  experience 
how  ye  received  the  gospel  from  us,  and  turned  from  idols  to  serve 
the  living  God  and  to  await  the  coming  of  his  Son.  The  genuine, 
practical  power  of  his  gospel  was  reproduced  in  the  souls  con- 
verted by  his  Thessalonian  converts.  Thus  the  waves  of  gospel 
sound  seemed  to  lose  none  of  their  power  as  they  traveled  outward 
into  remotest  lands. 


192  I.  THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.   II. 


CHAPTER    II. 

Reminiscences  of  labor  (v.  1,  2);  points  on  the  negative  side 
(v.  3-6) ;  and  on  the  positive  (v.  7-9) ;  appealing  to  themselves 
to  witness  how  the  apostles  had  labored  among  them  (v.  10-12) ; 
grateful  for  the  manner  in  which  they  received  the  word  (v.  13) 
and  became  followers  of  the  Judean  churches  in  the  endurance 
of  persecution  (v.  14-16);  his  longing  to  see  them  (v.  17,  18), 
because  they  were  his  hope  and  joy  (v.  19,  20). 

1.  For  yourselves,  brethren,  know  our  entrance  in  unto 
you,  that  it  was  not  in  vain: 

2.  But  even  after  that  we  had  suffered  before,  and  were 
shamefully  entreated,  as  ye  know,  at  Philipi^i,  we  were  bold 
in  our  God  to  speak  unto  you  the  gospel  of  God  with  much 
contention. 

The  scenes  at  Philippi — the  mob,  the  scourging,  and  that  event- 
ful night  in  the  stocks  and  the  inner  prison — were  all  recent  and 
fresh — the  smart  of  the  pain  scarcely  ceased,  and  the  sense  of 
purposed  indignity  yet  keen  and  sharp,  when  they  entered  this 
great  city,  Thessalonica.  (See  Acts  16  and  17  :  1-9.)  But  never 
a  moment  did  Paul  and  Silas  quail  before  mob  or  magistrate; 
scourging,  or  imprisonment.  Rather  they  seem  to  have  been 
only  the  more  bold  in  their  God  to  speak  the  gospel  word  with 
mightier  endeavor — a  struggle  that  rose  almost  to  agony  (much 
"agon"  is  Paul's  word). 

3.  For  our  exhortation  ivas  not  of  deceit,  nor  of  unclean- 
ness,  nor  in  guile: 

4.  But  as  we  were  allowed  of  God  to  be  put  in  trust  with 
the  gosj^el,  even  so  we  speak;  not  as  pleasing  men,  but  God, 
which  trieth  our  hearts. 

5.  For  neither  at  any  time  used  we  flattering  words,  as  ye 
know,  nor  a  cloak  of  covetousness ;  God  is  witness : 

6.  Nor  of  men  sought  we  glory,  neither  of  you,  nor  yet 
of  others,  when  we  might  have  been  burdensome,  as  the 
ajiostles  of  Christ. 

"Not  of  unclcanncss,"  looks  to  impure  motives  and  denies  this. 
''Alloivcd  of  God  " — better,  approved,  approbated  of  God  to  bo 
intrusted  with  the  gospel.  We  speak  to  please  not  man  but  God 
who  hath  approved  ou]f  hearts — the  same   word   as  a])ove  (Eng. 

"  allowed")  but  in  sense  approved. In  v.   5,  the   Greek   for 

"  used,"  applied  to  "words  of  flattery,"  is  noticeable,  ])eingtlie  com- 
mon Greek  verb  for  become^  in  the  sense — we  were  not  in  that 
sort  of  thing — took  no  part  in   it.— — "Cloak  of  covetousness" 
■=•■  ytvouai. 


I.  THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.    II.  193 

does  not  make  covetousness  itself  the  cloak,  but  denies  the  use  of 
flattering  words  as  a  cloak  to  conceal  real  covetousness — this  cov- 
etousness being  the  thing  charged  by  his  calumniators  but  indig- 
nantly denied  by  the  apostle. In  v.  6,  we  perhaps  naturally 

think  of  '-burdensome  "  as  looking  toward  the  burden  of  his  sup- 
port. He  does  refer  to  this  point  below  (v.  9) ;  but  here  he  refers 
rather  to  the  assumption  of  honor  and  dignity,  in  the  same  line 
of  thought  with  the  previous  clause — "  we  sought  not  glory." 
We  might  have  assumed  great  authority ;  might  have  put  on  the 
attitude  of  dignity  as  the  apostles  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  have  made 
ourselves  in  this  sense  very  weighty  among  you ; — but  we  did  no 
such  thing. 

7.  But  we  were  gentle  among  you,  even  as  a  nurse  cher- 
isheth  her  children : 

8.  So  being  affectionately  desirous  of  you,  we  were  will- 
ing to  have  imparted  unto  you,  not  the  gospel  of  God  only, 
but  also  our  own  souls,  because  ye  were  dear  unto  us. 

So  far  from  putting  on  airs  of  dignity  or  authority,  we  were 
gentle,  mild,  of  tender  spirit,  loving  and  cherishing  as  a  nurse 
folds  to  her  bosom  dear  infant  ones,  frail  and  sufiering.  So  deep 
and  strong  was  the  love  we  bore  toward  you  that  we  could  gladly 
have  given  you  not  the  gospel  only  but  our  very  souls,  at  the  mar- 
tyr's stake. 

9.  For  ye  remember,  brethren,  our  labor  and  travail: 
for  laboring  night  and  day,  because  we  would  not  be  charge- 
able unto  any  of  you,  we  preached  unto  you  the  gospel  of 
God. 

Here  Paul  comes  to  the  fact  of  their  physical  labors  (those  of 
his  associates  and  himself)  night  and  day  for  their  personal  sub- 
sistence, so  as  not  to  burden  any  of  the  people.  To  this  custom 
of  his  we  find  several  allusions,  especially  in  his  letters  to  the 
church  at  Corinth.  (See  2  Cor.  11.)  He  never  questioned,  never 
relinquished  his  right  to  material  support,  but  he  sometimes  for- 
bore to  assert  the  right  or  receive  the  aid,  that  he  might  take 
away  all  occasion  of  scandal  from  men  eager  to  find  or  to  make  up 
such  occasion. 

10.  Ye  are  witnesses,  and  God  also^  how  holily  and  justly 
and  unblamably  we  behaved  ourselves  among  you  that  be- 
lieve : 

11.  As  ye  know  how  we  exhorted  and  comforted  and 
charged  every  one  of  you,  as  a  father  doth  his  children, 

12.  That  ye  would  walk  worthy  of  God,  who  hath  called 
you  unto  h\^  kingdom  and  glory. 

It  must  be  assumed  that  Paul  had  some  special  reason  for  this 
very  emphatic,  not  to  say  solemn,  affirmation  of  his  blameless,  up- 


194  I.    THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.  II. 

right  life  before  the  Thessalonians.  It  is  due  to  him  not  as  a 
Christian  only  but  as  a  man,  to  assume  that  these  words  of  per- 
sonal experience  and  history  were  not  the  fruit  of  vanity,  nor  a 
bid  for  applause,  nor  a  claim  for  the  honor  that  comes  from  men. 
What  definite  form  of  scandal  he  sought  to  meet — what  reproach 
upon  the  gospel  and  upon  his  Great  Master  he  would  avert  and 
disarm,  we  can  not  say  precisely ;  but  he  knew  that  the  Jews  of 
the  synagogue  at  Thessalonica  "who  believed  not"  "were  moved 
with  envy"  and  were  equal  not  only  to  any  degree  of  mob  vio- 
lence but  to  any  extreme  of  detraction,  falsehood  and  slander. 
(Acts  17 :  5-9. )  This  letter  was  written  not  many  months  after 
the  scenes  which  Luke  describes,  so  that  we  may  conveniently 
assume  that  those  envious  Jews  were  not  all  dead  nor  all  con- 
verted from  their  malice  to  a  better  mind. 

13.  For  this  cause  also  thank  we  God  without  ceasing, 
because,  when  ye  received  the  word  of  God  which  ye  heard 
of  us,  ye  received  it  not  as  the  word  of  men,  but,  as  it  is  in 
truth,  the  word  of  God,  which  effectually  worketh  also  in 
you  that  believe. 

"For  this  cause" — but  to  what  does  the  word  "this"  refer? 
What  "  cause  "  does  he  speak  of?  For  the  answer  we  go  back  to 
the?  exceeding  great  affliction  and  earnest  labors  of  the  apostles  in 
their  gospel  work  at  Thessalonica.  Because  we  felt  so  deeply 
and  labored  so  sevei"^ly,  therefore  we  also  (ye  much  more)  but  we 
too  and  also  give  thanks  without  ceasing  to  God  that  our  labors 
were  not  in  vain.  Our  gospel  word  was  effective  because  ye  re- 
ceived it,  not  as  the  word  of  man,  but  as  the  word  of  God. In 

the  last  clause,  it  is  of  some  importance  to  determine  to  what  the 
word  "which"  ("which  effectually  worketh")  refers  as  its  ante- 
cedent. Is  it — God  wJio  worketh,  or  the  word  which  worketh  ? 
Our  authorized  version  "  which  "  is  no  certain  index  of  the  view  of 
our  translators,  for  "  which  "  in  their  usage  may  be  either  which  or 
who.  So  in  the  Greek,  so  far  as  is  shown  by  the  gender,  the 
grammatical  antecedent  may  be  either  "word"  or  "God" — both 
these  nouns  being  masculine. 

The  following  considerations,  taken  in  their  combined  force, 
seem  to  me  decisive  in  favor  of  referring  "which"  to  "word." 
Thus  the  thing  asserted  will  be  that  the  "ivord"  works  effectually 

in  believers. (a.)  "  Word  "  rather  than  "  God"  is  the^  leading 

thought  before  the  mind  in  this  verse.  How  they  received  the 
ivord  is  the  point  in  hand,  (h.)  The  term  "  also"  ["  which  ef- 
fectually worketh  a/.so"]  ought  to  follow  "which"  in  the  En- 
glish as  it  does  in  the  Greek : — which  [word]  also  worketh  ef- 
fectually. We  shall  see  the  pertinence  and  ])earingof  this  "also" 
if  we  consider  that  Paul  has  ])rought  into  view  the  influence  of 
God  already  ])y  saying  that  they  received  the  gospel  not  as  the 
word  of  man,  but  as  the  word  of  God.  Therefore  it  only  remained 
to  add  the  other  element  of  power,  viz.,  tliat  of  the  word  itself. 
This  he  docs  by  saying  tiiat  the  word  also  works  effectually  in 


I.    THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.    II.  195 

believers.  But  perhaps  most  decisive  of  all  is  consideration  (c.) 
— the  facts  of  New  Testament  usage; — viz.,  that  when  God's 
power  is  expressed  by  this  Greek  verb  energize,*  it  is  always  put 
in  the  active  voice.  The  examples  are  1  Cor.  12  :  6 — Gal.  2 :  8 
and  3  :  5— Eph.  1 :  11,  20  and  2:  2— Phil.  2:  13.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  energy  of  "faith,  working  by  love"  (Gal.  5:  6)  is  put 
in  the  Greek  middle  voice  as  here.  The  distinction  is  nice  but 
real  and  in  this  case  should  be  considered  decisive. f  Under  this 
nice  but  vital  and  carefully  maintained  distinction,  the  active 
voice  is  used  of  God's  working  to  denote  that  his  energy  is  im- 
mediate, direct,  and  supreme ;  but  the  middle  voice  of  the  same 
verb  for  other  forms  of  agency,  subordinate,  inter-acting,  or  of 
forces  acting  mutually  upon  each  other.  It  was  desirable  to  dis- 
tinguish broadly  between  God's  working  and  all  other  working. 

14.  For  ye,  brethren,  became  followers  of  the  churches  of 
God  which  in  Judea  are  in  Christ  Jesus :  for  ye  also  have 
suffered  like  things  of  your  own  countrymen,  even  as  they 
/lave  of  the  Jews : 

15.  Who  both  killed  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  their  own 
prophets,  and  have  persecuted  us  ;  and  they  please  not  God, 
and  are  contrary  to  all  men: 

16.  Forbidding  us  to  speak  to  the  Gentiles  that  they 
might  be  saved,  to  fill  up  their  sins  always:  for  the  wrath 
is  to  come  upon  them  to  the  uttermost. 

It  was  specially  pertinent  to  compare  the  persecutions  endured 
by  the  brethren  at  Thessalonica  with  those  endured  by  the  Chris- 
tian churches  in  Judea,  Pharisaic  bigoted  Jews  having  been  the 
instigators  in  both  cases  alike.  Then  Paul  forcibly  enlarges  upon 
the  awful  guilt  of  those  malicious  Jews  who  murdered  Jesus, 
slew  their  own  prophets,  set  themselves  enviously  against  the 
salvation  of  the  Gentile  world  ["contrary  to  all  men"],  and  so 
brought  down  upon  themselves  and  their  nation  the  crushing,  ex- 
terminating judgments  of  the  Almighty. In  v.  16  the  clause — 

"  to  fill  up  their  sins  always  " — should  not  be  referred  to  Gen- 
tiles, supposably  left  without  the  gospel  to  hopeless  sinning ;  but 
to  Jews  who  were  rapidly  filling  up  the  measure  of  their  national 
guilt  to  the  very  brim.     (See  the  same  view  in  Matt.  23:  32-39.) 

In  the  last  clause  of  v.  16,  the  word   "for"   is  misleading. 

*  evep-yeo) 

t  Other  cases  of  the  middle  voice  of  this  verb  are  Kom.  7  :  5  ;  2 
Cor.  1 :  6  and  4 :  12  ;  Eph.  3 .  20 ;  Col.  1 :  29  and  2  Thess.  2  :  7  aiid 
James  5  :  16.  This  distinction  between  the  use  of  the  active  voice 
for  God's  personal  energy  ;  and  the  middle  voice  for  other  forms  of 
energy,  working  and  inter-working,  is  entirely  uniform.  The  pas- 
sages cited  are  all  that  occur  in  the  New  Testament,  with  the  ex- 
cejjtion  of  Herod's  reference  of  the  miracles  he  heard  of  to  the  en- 
ergy of  the  Baptist  risen  from  the  dead  (Matt.  14  :  2  and  Mark  6: 
14). 


196  I.   THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.   II. 

The  word  ^' hiit'^  gives  the  relations  of  thouf^ht  much  better. 
Paul  would  say — Ye  need  not  marvel  that  such  awful  wickedness 
should  seem  to  pass  unnoticed  of  God;  it  can  not  be  so  long;  it 
may  seem  so  now;  hut  the  tremendous  judgments  of  God  are 
even  now  almost  bursting  upon  their  heads.  The  awful  cloud  is 
gathering;  soon  ye  will  see  it  break:  and  sweep  them  with  a 
deluge  of  ruin  unto  their  complete  destruction.  In  fact,  less  than 
fifteen  years  intervened  before  that  cloud  of  vengeance  broke  and 
Jerusalem  fell ! 

17.  But  we,  brethren,  being  taken  from  you  for  a  short 
time  in  presence,  not  in  heart,  endeavored  the  more  abund- 
antly to  see  your  face  with  great  desire. 

18.  AVherefore  we  would  have  come  unto  you,  even  I 
Paul,  once  and  again ;  but  Satan  hindered  us. 

"Taken  from  you" — Paul's  word  suggesting  the  bereavement 
of  orphanage  (being  orphanized  from  you). How  Satan  man- 
aged to  prevent  Paul's  visit,  he  has  not  told  us.  But  this  allusion 
shows  that  Paul  fully  and  practically  believed — what  his  words 
to  the  Ephesians  (6:  12)  imply — that  "we  wrestle  not  against 
flesh  and  blood  only,  but  against  principalities  and  powers — the 
rulers  of  this  world's  darkness;  that  we  come  to  a  grapple  hand  to 
hand  with  the  devil,  in  more  ways  than  men  are  wont  to  think  of. 

Was  this  belief  which  Paul  certainly  held,  a  real  knowledge 

of  facts,  or  a  notion  of  his  superstitious  fancy?  For  aught  I  can 
see,  if  we  admit  his  inspiration  of  God,  we  must  accept  it  as 
knowledge  of  the  truth  and  not  as  a  delusion  of  human  super- 
Btition. 

19.  For  what  is  our  hope,  or  joy,  or  crown  of  rejoicing? 
Are  not  even  ye  in  the  presence  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  at 
his  coming? 

20.  For  ye  are  our  glory  and  joy. 

Paul  had  personally  so  much  at  stake — had  so  much  stock 
(shall  we  call  it)  in  tlieir  Christian  stability,  so  much  prospective 
joy  and  ineffable  reward,  to  come  from  their  perseverance  to  the 
end; — why  should  lie  not  labor  unceasingly  and  pray  most  fer- 
vently for  their  final  victory  through  faith  in  the  Lord  ? Note 

that  these  anticipations  of  Paul  assume  most  certainly  that  in 
the  future  life  he  will  personally  know  every  convert  from  under 
his  labors  in  this  life.  That  life  links  itself  to  this  as  if  the  river 
of  death  severed  dear  friends^o  more  than  the  crossing  of  any 
river  of  earthly  sort  is  wont  to  do. 


I.    THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.    III.  197 


CHAPTER    III. 

Why  he  sent  Timothy  to  see  them  (v.  1-3);  fearful  that 
persecution  might  break  down  their  faith  (v.  4,  5);  hut  Timothy's 
return  and  good  tidings  had  brought  comfort  (v.  6-8),  and  had  in- 
spired grateful  thank-offerings  and  prayers  (v.  9,  10) ;  the  objects 
prayed  for  (v.  11-13). 

1.  AVherefore  when  we  could  no  longer  forbear,  we  thought 
it  good  to  be  left  at  Athens  alone ; 

2.  And  sent  Timotheus,  our  brother,  and  minister  of  God, 
and  our  fellow-laborer  in  the  gospel  of  Christ,  to  establish 
you,  and  to  comfort  you  concerning  your  faith : 

3.  That  no  man  should  be  moved  by  these  afflictions :  for 
yourselves  know  that  we  are  appointed  thereunto. 

The  narrative  in  Acts  seems  to  show  that  Silas  and  Timothy 
remained  yet  awhile  in  Thessalonica  when  Paul  was  brought  on 
to  Athens' (Acts  17:  14,  15),  that  while  Paul  was  there  alone, 
waiting  for  them  to  come,  he  met  the  Jews  in  their  synagogue 
and  subsequently  made  his  great  speech  on  Mars  Hill;  and 
finally,  that  when  Silas  and  Timothy  returned  from  Macedonia 
[Thessalonica],  they  came  to  Paul  at  Corinth  whence  this  epistle 
was  written. 

The  tenor  of  this  epistle  seems  to  imply  that  Paul  sent  Timothy 
from  Athens  to  Thessalonica,  his  burdened  spirit  being  able  no 
longer  to  endure  his  anxieties  and  uncertainties  as  to  his  con- 
verts there.  Neither  the  history  nor  the  epistle  purport  to  give 
all  the  facts  of  the  case.  If  these  facts  were  all  known  it  may 
be  reasonably  presumed  that  the  missing  links  would  be  supplied. 

In  V.  2  slight  unimportant  variations  of  text  appear   in  the 

clause  descriptive  of  Timothy. In  sending  him,  Paul's  twofold 

object  was  (a)  to  establish  ;  and  (6)  not  to  "comfort,"  but  rather 
to  exhort — this  being  the  more  usual  and  more  nearly  the  primary 
sense  of  the  verb  he  used.  To  "  comfort  them  concerning  their 
faith "  was  by  no  means  the  sense  of  Paul's  words.  Rather  he 
w^ould  exhort  them  to  steadfastness  and  to  unflinching  endurance. 

The  fact  that  Christians  w^ere  destined   to  persecution  had 

been  carefully  taught,  so  that  they  need  not  be  surprised  or 
stumbled  by  it.  Jesus  had  said  (John  16:  33)  "In  the  w^orld  ye 
shall  have  tribulation;"  and  the  apostles  were  careful  to  reaffirm 
it  (Acts  14:  22),  "saying  that  we  must  through  much  tribulation 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God." 

4.  For  verily,  when  we  were  with  you,  we  told  you  before 
that  we  should  suffer  tribulation ;  even  as  it  came  to  pass, 
and  ye  know. 

5.  For  this  cause,  when  I  could  no  longer  forbear,  I  sent 


198  I.    THESSALONIANS. CHAP.    III. 

to  know  your  faith,  lest  by  some  means  the  tempter  have 
tempted  you,  and  our  labor  be  in  vain. 

While  yet  with  them  he  had  prudently  forewarned  them  of 
persecution — its  elements  being  even  then  apparent.  After  the 
storm  had  broken  upon  himself  and  driven  him  away,  his  fear 
as  to  their  future  was  so  great  that  he  sent  Timothy  to  see 
and  exhort  them.  He  understood  Satan's  wiles  so  well  that  he 
expected  him  to  be  on  hand  to  assault  them  in  their  exposed 
condition. 

6.  But  now  w^hen  Timotheus  came  from  you  unto  us,  and 
brought  us  good  tidings  of  your  faith  and  charity,  and  that 
ye  have  good  remembrance  of  us  always,  desiring  greatly  to 
see  us,  as  we  also  to  see  yon : 

7.  Therefore,  brethren,  we  were  comforted  over  you  in  all 
our  afflictions  and  distress  by  your  faith: 

8.  For  now  we  live,  if  ye  stand  fast  in  the  Lord. 

» 

Timothy's  return  with  good  tidings  brought  him  not  relief  only 
but  great  joy.  "We  /tyelf  ye  stand  fast  in  the  Lord" — "live  ' 
in  the  sense  of  real  life,  a  life  worth  living^a  deep  joy  which  no 
word  can  express  better  than  life  as  antithetic  to  death. 

9.  For  what  thanks  can  we  render  to  God  again  for  you, 
for  all  the  joy  wherewith  we  joy  for  your  sakes  before  our 
God; 

10.  Night  and  day  praying  exceedingly  that  we  might  see 
your  face,  and  might  perfect  that  which  is  lacking  in  your 
faith? 

How  can  we  adequately  thank  God  for  this  relief  to  our  hearts 
and  this  joy  in  the  answer  to  our  anxious  prayers  in  your  be- 
half? Paul  had  been  feeling  that  nothing  short  of  going  to  see 
them  in  person  could  meet  the  case;  but  now  his  heart  is  quite 
relieved.  The  thing  he  so  much  desired,  viz.,  to  perfect  what 
might  be  deficient  in  their  faith,  he  trusted  had  been  accom- 
plished.—— Whether  this  supposed  deficiency  was  specially  in 
doctrine  or  in  practice — in  the  truth  believed,  or  in  the  strength 
of  the  belief  itself,  does  not  appear.  Very  probably  both  these 
aspects  of  faith  are  included. 

11.  Now  God  himself  and  our  Father,  and  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  direct  our  way  unto  you. 

12.  And  the  Lord  make  you  to  increase  and  abound  in 
love  one  toward  another,  and  toward  all  men,  even  as  we  do 
toward  you: 

13.  To  the  end  he  may  stablish  your  hearts  unblamable 


I.  THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.  IV.  199 

in  holiness  before  God,  even  our  Father,  at  the  coming  of 
onr  Lord  Jesus  Christ  with  all  his  saints. 

These  are  the  special  subjects  of  his  prayer  in  their  behalf; — 
that  God's  good  providence  miglit  open  the  way  for  him  to  go  to 
them;  that  their  love  toward  each  other  and  toward  all  men  might 
abound,  and  their  hearts  be  established  in  holiness — be  made 
strong  and  be  blameless  in  holiness,  in  the  coming  (the  precise 
sense) — in  the  coming  of  the  Lord  Jesus  with  all  liis  saints.  In 
that  eventful  day,  to  be  found  blameless  in  holiness  would  be 
beyond  measure  glorious  !  Let  them  think  of  that  coming,  and 
let  the  thought  of  it  be  a  perpetual  inspiration  to  holy  living. 


>J<Xc 


CHAPTER   IV. 

Exhortation  to  do  the  duty  they  know  (v.  1,  2);  against  sins 
of  moral  impurity  (v.  3-7)  ;  duties  enjoined  not  of  men  only  but 
of  God  (v.  8) ;  of  brotherly  love  (v.  9,  10),  and  honest  labor  (v.  11, 
12).  Sorrow  for  ishe  pious  dead  (v.  13);  to  be  alleviated  by  as- 
surance of  their  resurrection  (v.  14) ;  that  saints,  living  at  the 
moment  of  Christ's  second  coming  have  no  advantage  in  point 
of  time  over  the  dead,  all  being  caught  up  together  to  meet  the 
Lord  (v.  15-18). 

1.  Furthermore  then  we  beseech  you,  brethren,  and  ex- 
hort you  by  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  as  ye  have  received  of  us 
how  ye  ought  to  walk  and  to  please  God,  so  ye  would  abound 
more  and  more. 

2.  For  ye  know  what  commandments  we  gave  you  by  the 
Lord  Jesus. 

In  the  last  part  of  v.  1,  the  improved  text  introduces  between 
the  clauses — "please  God,"  and  "so  ye  would  abound" — these 
words — "Even  as  also  ye  are  walking,"  This  softens  the  exhor- 
tation by  disclaiming  any  implication  that  they  were  not  doing 

well. Yet  fraternal  exhortation  is  always  in  order.     Let  all 

God's  people  see  to  it  that  they  do  as  well  as  they  know. 

3.  For  this  is  the  will  of  God,  even  your  sanctification, 
that  ye  should  abstain  from  fornication : 

4.  That  every  one  of  you  should  know  how  to  possess  his 
vessel  in  sanctification  and  honor; 

5.  Not  in  the  lust  of  concupiscence,  even  as  the  Gentiles 
which  know  not  God : 

6.  That  no  man  go  beyond  and  defraud  his  brother  in  any 


200  I.  THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.    IV. 

matter:  because  that  the  Lord  is  the  avenger  of  all  such,  as 
we  also  have  forewarned  you  and  testified. 

7.  For  God  hath  not  called  us  unto  uncleanness,  but  unto 
holiness. 

This  entire  passage  treats  of  sins  against  moral  purity — vio- 
lations of  the  seventh  commandment.  The  will  of  God  is  utterly 
against  such  sins,  and  demands,  instead,  sanctification ;  purity — 
not  of  deed  only,  but  of  heart. 

"His  vessel"  (v.  4),  assumes  marriage,  the  "vessel"  being  the 
wife,  in  the  sense  of  Peter  (1  Eps.  3:  7) — "Giving  honor  to 
the  wife  as  to  the  weaker  vessel."  The  apostolic  doctrine  holds 
every-where,  that  "  marriage  is  honorable  in  all"  (Heb.  13:  4), — 
its  legitimate  purposes  being  in  and  according  to  the  will  of  God, 

In  V.  6  we  are  not  to  think  of  covetousness  in  the  business 

sense,  but  as  a  violation  of  the  seventh  commandment — tramp- 
ling upon  the  marital  rights  of  a  Christian  brother.  If  this  be 
flagrant  sin  outside  the  church,  how  much  more  so  against  a 
brother  in  Christ!  No  wonder  the  Lord  will  be  the  swift  and 
terrible  avenger  of  his  wronged  and  outraged  child!  Verily, 
God  never  called  his  people  to  such  uncleanness,  but  to  purity  of 
life  and  of  heart.  Let  it  be  their  joy  and  blessedness  to  respond 
kindly  and  fully  to  this  heavenly  call. 

8.  He  therefore  that  despiseth,  despiseth  not  man,  but 
God,  who  hath  also  given  unto  us  his  Holy  Spirit. 

Whoever  despises  these  laws  of  purity,  impatient  of  self-re- 
straint, despises  not  man  but  God.  Therefore  let  him  beware ! 
The  obligations  to  moral  purity  are  heightened  immeasura- 
bly by  the  fact  that  the  Holy  Ghost  dwells  in  his  people — their 
bodies  being  his  real  temple.  Note  how  strongly  Paul  puts  this 
point  (1  Cor.  6:  15-19  and  3:  16,  17  and  2  Cor.  6  :  16  and  7:  1). 

9.  But  as  touching  brotherly  love  ye  need  not  that  I  write 
unto  you :  for  ye  yourselves  are  taught  of  God  to  love  one 
ancjther. 

10.  And  indeed  ye  do  it  toward  all  the  brethren  which  are 
in  all  Macedonia :  but  we  beseech  you,  brethren,  that  ye  in- 
crease more  and  more ; 

Full  at  once  of  beauty  and  of  strength  is  Paul's  word  bore  : — 
"Ye  yourscilves  are  God-tdiajht^  to  love  one  another."  I'he  Di- 
vine Spirit  impresses  no  lesson  more  universally  or  more  deeply 
upfin  tiie  souls  that  are  really  new-born  to  holiness.  "  We  know 
tliat  we  have  passed  from  death  unto  life,  because  wc  love  the 
brethren"  (1  John  3:  14). 

11.  And  that  ye  study  to  be  quiet,  and  to  do  your  own 
])usiness,  and  to  work  with  your  own  hands,  as  we  com- 
manded you; 

*"  OeodidaKTot, 


I.  THESSALONIAKS. — CHAP.  IV.  201 

12.  That  ye  may  walk  honestly  toward  them  that  are  with- 
out, and  that  ye  may  have  lack  of  nothing. 

No  doubt  there  was  occasion  for  these  gentle  rebukes.  All 
was  not  right  in  Thessalonica.  Some  of  them  were  restive,  un- 
quiet, neglecting  their  proper  worldly  business ;  meddling  with 
the  business  of  other  people  instead  of  giving  due  attention  to 
their  own.  It  admits  of  no  reasonable  question  that  the  disturb- 
ing element  lay  in  their  mistaken  notions  of  the  near  coming  of 
the  Lord.  The  second  epistle  (3:  11,  12)  indicates  that  these 
disorders  prevailed  there  and  had  come  to  the  ears  of  the  apostle. 

"Study  to  be  quiet" — as    opposed   to   an  excited,    agitated 

feeling — the  usual  fruit  of  ill-defined  and  mistaken  anticipations 
of  Christ's  near  coming.  It  is  plain  that  God  never  intended  the 
doctrine  that  Christ's  second  coming  is  to  be  with  no  forewarn- 
ing, entirely  sudden  when  it  comes,  or  even  the  doctrine  of  its 
being  near  at  hand,  should  arrest  the  ordinary  labors  and  duties 
of  life  and  put  men  upon  gazing  upward  into  the  starry  heavens. 
It  should  indeed  induce  them  to  live  in  their  heart's  love  above 
the  world,  yet  by  no  means  outside  of  it,  or  aloof  from  its  ordi- 
nary duties. The  considerations  here  put  are  pertinent — that 

ye  walk  honorably  (better  than  "  honestly")  toward  those  outside 
the  church,  and  earn  a  comfortable  support  by  honest  labor, 
never  throwing  yourselves  upon  other  men  for  your  living. 

13.  But  I  would  not  have  you  to  be  ignorant,  brethren, 
concerning  them  which  are  asleep,  that  ye  sorrow  not,  even 
as  others  which  have  no  hope. 

14.  For  if  we  believe  that  Jesus  died  and  rose  again, 
even  so  them  also  which  sleep  in  Jesus  will  God  bring  with 
him. 

It  was  their  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  their  Christian  dead 
would  miss  the  glories  of  Christ's  second  coming,  or  get  them 
only  at  great  disadvantage  compared  with  those  who  should  be 
yet  living  when  he  came.  Paul  would  not  have  them_  remain 
thus  ignorant  upon  a  point  so  vital  to  Christian  consolation  over 
the  sainted  dead.  Let  Godless  heathen  bewail  their  dead  in  all 
the  agony  of  utter  despair;  but  let  Christians  never  so  dishonor 

their  precious  gospel. The  original  words  rendered  "  Sleep  in 

Jesus"  are  beautifully  significant — those  icho  are  laid  asleep  hy 
Jesus ;  who  owe  it  to  Jesus  that  death  to  them  is  only  "sleep" — 
a  sleep  from  which  they  shall  in  due  season  wake  to  life  immortal 

and  all-glorious! Here,  as  in  the  great  standard  passage  (1 

Cor.  15 :  12-20),  Paul  rests  the  Christians'  hope  of  a  personal 
resurrection  upon  the  resurrection  of  their  Lord.     If  God  raised 

him,  so  will  he  also  raise  all  his  people. "  Will  God  bring  with 

him,"  is  put  impressively.  They  are  with  him  now  in  his  pre- 
pared mansions  above;  and  so,  when  God  shall  bring  forth 
Jesus,  the  Glorious  Judge,  and  all  the  holy  angels  with  him,  he 
will  bring  those  departed  saints  also. 


202  I.  THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.  IV. 

15.  For  this  we  say  unto  you  by  the  word  of  the  Lord, 
that  we  which  are  aUve  and  remain  unto  the  coming  of  the 
Lord  shall  not  prevent  them  which  are  asleep. 

The  strong  emphasis  and  tone  of  authority  in  these  words — 
"  This  Ave  say  to  you  in  the  word  of  the  Lord  " — presupposes  a 
special  reason  or  occasion — probably  in  the  fact  that  those  who 
held  the  erroneous  notion  here  refuted  were  enthusiastic,  perhaps 
very  positive;  perhaps,  as  is  not  uncommon  in  the  case  of  this 
very  delusion,  quite  confident  that  they  were  taught  of  God,  even 
above  the  apostles.  Hence  this  most  solemn  averment: — I  say 
this  to  you  on  the  authority  of  a  special  revelation.     I  speak  in 

and  by  the  very  word  of  the  Lord. "Prevent  them  which  are 

asleep" — certainly  not  in  the  sense  of  obstructing  their  resurrec- 
tion, nor  in  any  sense  now  given  to  the  word  "  prevent;  "  but  in 
the  old  sense,  now  obsolete,  of  beinc/  in  advance  of;  being  before 
them  in  time.  The  point  Paul  makes  is  that  those  then  living 
will  have  no  advantage  over  those  previously  dead.  The  latter 
will  see  the  coming  Christ  as  soon  as  the  former.  Both  classes 
will  be  caught  up  together  to  meet  the  Lord. 

Here  I  must  call  special  attention  to  the  apostle's  word  "  we." 
Some  readers  have  supposed  and  even  some  commentators  have 
assumed  that  Paul,  in  thus  classing  himself  among  the  living, 
still  remaining  alive  unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  shows  that  he 
expected  to  live  till  that  coming. Now,  in  regard  to  this  con- 
struction of  Paul's  word  "  we,"  and  this  assumption  founded  upon 
it,  I  deem  it  very  important  to  say — 

L  It  is  simply  groundless — with  no  real  foundation.  It  is  his 
way  of  putting  the  case  to  make  his  points  clear  and  forcible.  It 
is  equivalent  to  saying — Suppose  Christ  should  come  to-morrow. 
Then  we  who  are  fiving  would  have  not  the  least  advantage  over 
our  Christian  brethren  who  are  dead.  To  make  his  point  per- 
fectly clear,  he  must  needs  put  before  their  thought  the  two 
classes:  those  living  when  Christ  should  come,  and  those  previ- 
ously dead.  He  wishes  to  compare  these  two  classes  with  each 
other  on  the  single  point  of  supposed  advantage  on  the  side  of  the 
living.  It  was  a  matter  of  not  the  least  consequence  when  the 
Lord  should  come,  whether  to-morrow,  ten  years  later,  or  ten  thou- 
sand; — the  facts  of  his  argument  would  be  the  same  ; — those  liv- 
ing then  would  have  no  advantage  over  the  previously  dead.  In 
the  same  way  and  on  a  similar  subject,  Paul  said  (1  Cor.  15  :  51, 
52) — ''We  shall  not  all  sleep,  but  we  shall  all  be  changed:" — 
"  the  dead  shall  be  raised  incorruptible,  and  u^e  shall  be  changed." 
Here  the  not-sleeping  who  have  never  met  death  are  one  class, 
and  the  dead  to  l)e  raised,  are  another,  and  these  two  classes  will 
be  broadly  distinguished  precisely  at  the  moment  when  Christ 
shall  come — no  matter  when  that  coming  may  ])e.  Paul's  use  of 
the  word  "we"  proves  nothing  whatever  ns  to  his  own  personal 
opinion  or  expectation  on  this  point  of  aldding  in  the  flesh  unto 
that  coming.  The  assumption  now  under  consideration  is  there- 
fore groundless. 


I.    THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.  IV.  203 

2.  This  construction  and  assumption  encumber  the  very  im- 
portant question  of  Paul's  inspiration  fearfully  ;  for  they  suppose 
him  to  have  been  utterly  in  error  on  this  point — the  time  of 
Christ's  coming, — i.  e.,  they  suppose  him  to  have  held  an  en- 
tirely false  opinion  as  to  the  time.  Now  it  is  not  only  an  unfort- 
tunate  mistake  to  encumber  the  fact  of  Paul's  inspiration  thus  ;  it 
is  worse  than  unfortunate  ;  it  is  unpardonable  ;  it  is  gratuitous  ; 
it  is  damaging — with  no  apology  for  the  mischief  done. 

3.  This  notion  ought  to  be  forever  precluded  by  the  testimony 
Paul  has  himself  given  that  he  expected  to  die  as  other  men  die, 
wath  never  a  thought  of  escaping  death  by  the  Lord's  coming  too 
soon  for  the  persecutor's  guillotine  to  take  effect.  Hear  what  he 
says: — "According  to  my  earnest  expectation  and  my  hope  that 
Christ  may  be  magnified  by  my  body,  whether  by  life  or  by  death. 
For  to  me,  to  live  is  Christ,  and  to  die  is  gain,"  etc.  (Phil.  1  :  20- 
23). — Again:  "I  am  now  ready  to  be  offered  ;  and  the  time  of  my 
departure  is  at  hand"  (2  Tim.  4-6). 

4.  The  case  is  put  beyond  all  possible  doubt  by  the  fact  that 
when  Paul  learned  that  the  delusion  in  regard  to  Christ's  near 
coming  was  still  rife  in  Thessalonica,  and  was  perhaps  aggravated 
by  their  false  construction  of  these  very  words,  he  hastens  in  a 
second  epistle  to  set  them  right  on  this  point,  "  beseeching  them 
not  to  be  shaken  in  mind  or  troubled  by  any  word  or  letter  as  from 
us,  as  that  the  day  of  Christ  is  at  hand"  (2  Eps.  2  :  1-3).  He 
tells  them  explicitly  that  this  great  day  shall  not  come  until  there 
shall  first  have  been  a  great  apostasy.  Thus  the  question  of  Paul's 
personal  expectation  of  living  on  earth  to  see  that  day  ought  to  be 
considered  forever  settled  by  his  own  explicit  testimony. 

16.  For  the  Lord  himself  shall  descend  from  heaven  wdth 
a  shout,  with  the  voice  of  the  archangel,  and  with  the  trump 
of  God  :  and  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first : 

17.  Then  w^e  which  are  alive  and  remain  shall  be  caught 
up  together  with  them  in  the  clouds,  to  meet  the  Lord  iu 
the  air :  and  so  shall  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord. 

18.  Wherefore  comfort  one  another  Avith  these  w^ords. 
"Shall  descend  with  a  shout" — the  shout  of  command  as  the 

word  signifies ;  it  being  in  frequent  use  for  the  authoritative  com- 
mand of  a  general  at  the  head  of  his  army ;  the  admiral  in  com- 
mand of  his  ship ;  the  captain  to  his  bench  of  rowers. The 

intermediate  agent  w4iose  great  trump  rings  out  this  call  may  be 
the  archangel  here  present.  The  presence  of  attending  angel- 
hosts  in  this  scene  is  often  referred  to  in  the  Scriptures  (Matt. 
24:  31  and  25  :  31  and  2  Thess.  1 :  7— Jude  14). 

"  The  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first" — not  first  as  compared  with 
the  raising  of  the  Aficked,  to  which  there  is  not  the  least  allusion 
here ;  but  first  as  to  the  ascension  of  the  saints  then  living  So 
Paul's  language  explicitly  declares.  The  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise 
first,  i.  e.,  before  a  certain  other  event  to  be  named;  and  then 
(immediately  thereafter  is  the  Greek),  this  second  event  is  dis- 


204  I.   THESSALOXIANS. — CHAP.   V. 

tinctly  defined,  viz.,  the  then  living  caught  up,  along  with  the 
risen  saints  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air. Then  and  thence- 
forward forever  shall  we  all  be  "icith  the  Lord."  The  "many 
mansions"  himself  has  prepared  (John  14:  2,  3)  open  to  their 
welcome  reception  ;  the  Savior's  prayer  (John  17  :  24),  "  Father, 
I  will  that  those  whom  thou  hast  given  me  be  with  me  where  I  am 
that  they  may  behold  my  glory,"  is  answered  fully  and  forever; 
the  Avords  of  the  beloved  disciple,  "  We  know  that  when  he  shall 
appear,  Ave  shall  be  like  him,  for  we  shall  see  him  as  he  is  "  (1  John 
3  :  2),  will  have  their  fulfillment  in  the  everlasting  peace  and  pu- 
rity of  heaven. 

Let  this  comfort  the  sorrowing  hearts  of  the  Thessalonian  breth- 
ren, and  all  other  Christian  hearts  that  sorrow,  sighing  for  some 
gospel  consolation ;  for  what  more,  what  richer,  what  other  conso- 
lation  can  human  hearts  desire  ? 


>>&^c 


CHAPTER    V. 

This  chapter  of  exhortations  suggests  that  the  day  of  the  Lord 
will  come  suddenly  (v  1-3) ;  biit  ye  have  light  and  should  walk 
in  it  ever  watching  (v.  4-7),  wearing  the  gospel  armor  because 
God  purposes  your  salvation  through  the  Savior's  death  (v,  8-11). 
They  should  honor  their  religious  teachers  (v.  12,  13),  Avatching 
over  each  other  that  none  fall  into  sin  (v.  15,  16).  Various  brief 
precepts  (v.  16-22);  prayer  for  their  sanctification  (v.  23,  24); 
final  requests  and  benedictions  (v.  25-28). 

1.  But  of  the  times  and  the  seasons,  brethren,  ye  have  no 
need  that  I  Avrite  unto  you. 

2.  For  yourselves  know  perfectly  that  the  day  of  the  Lord 
so  Cometh  as  a  thief  in  the  night, 

3.  For  Avhen  they  shall  say,  Peace  and  safety ;  then  sud- 
den destruction  cometli  ujwn  them,  as  travail  upon  a  woman 
with  child ;  and  they  shall  not  escape. 

"  Times  and  seasons  "  are  not  altogether  synonymous  terms — the 
former  denoting  properly  long  indefinite  periods;  the  latter,  pe- 
riods specially  adapted  for  some  specific  purpose,  having  their 
own  peculiarity — as  "the  seasons  of  the  year."  lUit  in  the  pres- 
ent case  no  special  distinction  appears,  both  referring  apparently 
to  the  great  subject  ever  prominent  in  this  epistle — the  time  of 
the  Lord's  second  coming.  As  to  tliis,  ye  know  accurately  [abso- 
lutely and  truly]  one  great  fact — viz.,  that  it  Avill  come  Avith  no 
forcAvarning;  unexpectedly,  as  a  thief  of  the  niglit  sends  forward 
no  token.  This  salient  feature  of  that  coming,  Jesus  himself  had 
tiiught  most  fully  (Matt.  24:  42-44  and  25:  13,  and  Luke  17:  24 
and  12:  39,  40);  and  his  disciples  had  repeated  his  Avords  (2  Pet. 


I.  THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.   V.  205 

3:  10,  and  Rev.  3:  3  and  16:  5). In  v.  3,  read:  "While  yet 

men  are  saying" — then,  all  suddenly,  the  day  shall  break  upon 

them.    Hence  let  all  men  be  ready  and  ready  always. It  is  but 

the  dictate  of  common  sense  that  we  should  account  the  day  of 
death  to  each  individual  as  in  every  practical  point  equivalent  to 
the  day  of  the  Lord's  coming.  So  viewed,  the  admonition  applies 
to  every  soul  in  every  age ;  to  every  reader  of  these  lines,  and  to 
him  who  writes  as  well. 

4.  But  ye,  brethren,  are  not  in  darkness,  that  that  day 
should  overtake  you  as  a  thief. 

5.  Ye  are  all  the  children  of  light,  and  the  children  of 
the  day :  we  are  not  of  the  night,  nor  of  darkness. 

6.  Therefore  let  us  not  sleep,  as  do  others ;  but  let  us 
watch  and  be  sober. 

7.  For  they  that  sleep  sleep  in  the  night;  and  they  that 
be  drunken  are  drunken  in  the  night. 

The  illustration  from  the  night  thief  who  always  strikes  under 
cover  of  darkness,  suggests  that  Christians,  having  the  light  of 
knowledge,  especially  in  the  point  of  forewarning,  need  not  be 
surprised  by  night,  there  being  no  such  night  of  ignorance  to 
them.  Nor  should  they  sleep  (spiritually)  as  others  do ;  but  be 
evermore  watching  in  the  sense  of  being  evermore  in  readiness 
for  the  Lord's  coming.  Leave  it  to  others,  if  so  they  will,  to 
sleep  as  in  the  night,  and  be  drunken  too ;  but  not  so  should  the 
Lord's  people. 

8.  But  let  us,  who  are  of  the  day,  be  sober,  putting  on 
the  breastplate  of  faith  and  love;  and  for  a  helmet,  the 
hope  of  salvation. 

9.  For  God  hath  not  appointed  us  to  wrath,  but  to  obtain 
salvation  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 

10.  Who  died  for  us,  that,  whether  we  wake  or  sleep,  we 
should  live  together  wdth  him. 

11.  Wherefore  comfort  yourselves  together,  and  edify  one 
another,  even  as  also  ye  do. 

See  more  concerning  this  defensive  armor  in  Eph.  6:  13-17. 
It  should  encourage  and  even  inspire  every  Christian  heart  that 
God  purposes  and  promotes  our  ultimate  salvation  through  the 
death  and  the  risen  life  of  his  Son.     He  died  for  us  that  we,  in 

life  or  in  death,  should  be  in  him. "  Sleep,"  for  the  state  of 

death,  is  the  fit  word  here,  since  it  is  only  in  and  through  Christ 
that  death  to  the  Christian  becomes  a  sleep  (and  this  of  the  body 
only) — a  sleep  out  of  which  he  is  in  due  time  to  wake  bodily,  to 
another  life,  immortal  and  all-glorious. 

12.  And  we  beseech  you,  brethren,  to  know  them  which 
labor  among  you,  and  are  over  you  in  the  Lord,  and  ad- 
monish you; 


206  I.  THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.  V. 

13.  And  to  esteem  them  very  highly  in  love  for  their 
work's  sake.     And  be  at  peace  among  yourselves. 

Here  is  one  and  the  same  chiss  of  men,  exercising  these  three 
functions — laboring  among  them,  presiding  over  them,  and  ad- 
monishing. The  precise  sense  of  the  original  might  be  put  thus: 
Those  who  labor  among  you — the  same  persons  being  also  over 
you  and  giving  you  admonition.  The  second  and  third  participles 
being  without  the  article,  can  not  refer  to  other  persons,  but  must 

refer  to  the  same. To  knoio  is  here  in  its  emphatic  sense — that 

of  recognizing  their  presence,  their  mission,  their  responsibil- 
ities, and  of  giving  them  all  due  honor  for  their  work's  sake.  This 
esteem  is  not  enjoined  and  enforced  on  the  score  of  personal  ac- 
quaintance, or  of  traits  of  personal  character;  but  of  their  de- 
voted spiritual  service.     Love  and  esteem  the  men  who  give  their 

heart  and    their   life    to    your  spiritual   welfare. "  At  peace 

among  yourselves ;"  for  probably  there  was  some  occasion  for  this 
exhortation.  The  duty  is  so  vital  to  the  well-being  of  society  and 
pre-eminently  of  the  church,  that  this  exhortation  rarely  comes 
amiss. 

14.  Now  we  exhort  you,  brethren  ,^  warn  them  that  are 
unruly,  comfort  the  feeble-minded,  suj^port  the  weak,  be 
patient  toward  all  men. 

The  word  "  unruly,''  used  quite  currently  of  the  lower  animals, 
we  rarely  apply  to  our  own  species  in  adult  life.  Paul's  word 
means  the  disorderly,  who  violate  the  common  principles  and 
obligations  of  labor  for  self-support.  It  should  be  interpreted  by 
comparison  with  other  allusions  in  both  these  epistles  (1  Eps.  4: 
10,  11,  and  2  Eps.  3:  6,  11).  Even  Ellicott  comments  thus: 
"The  precise  reference  is  probably  to  the  neglect  of  duties  and 
calling,  into  which  the  Thessalonians  had  lapsed,  owing  to  mis- 
taken views  of  the  time  of  the  Lord's  coming." "Comfort  the 

feeble-minded" — literally  those  of  small  soul,  who  would  be  spe- 
cial sufferers  under  the  unnatural  excitement  produced  by  the 

doctrine  of  Christ's  near  coming. "Support  the  weak" — not 

the  weak  in  body,  but  the  weak  in  faith. "Be  patient  toAvard 

all" — for  minds  easily  excited  and  of  little  self-control  might 
severely  tax  their  patience. 

15.  See  that  none  render  evil  for  evil  unto  any  man;  but 
ever  follow  that  which  is  good,  both  among  yourselves,  and 
to  all  men. 

Retaliation  in  revenge — always  wrong,  never  consistent  with 
the  Christian  life — is  a  doctrine  which  may  be  claimed  to  be  the 
distinctive  glory  of  Christianity.  Let  vengeance  be  for  the  Lord 
alone.  WIhui  has  the  Ix^st  heathen  wisdom  hold  and  taught  this? 
(See  Rom.  12:  17-21,  and  1  Cor.  G:  7,  and  1  Pet.  3:  9,  and  Prov. 
20:  22  and  24:  2'J.) 


I.  THESSALONIANS. CHAP.    V.  207 

16.  Kejoice  evermore. 

17.  Pray  without  ceasing. 

18.  lu  every  thing  give  thanks :  for  this  is  the  Avill  of 
God  in  Christ  Jesus  concerning  you. 

To  the  Christian  there  is  always  reason  for  joy  in  God,  Is  not 
God  always  good,  and  his  friendship  always  an  infinite  treasure  ? 
And    his   kingdom   always  a  fountain   of  blessedness,  affording 

ground  for  perpetual  rejoicing? Paul  puts  the  precept  in  the 

special  form:  "Rejoice  in  the  Lord  always;  and  again,  I  say. 
Rejoice"  (Phil.  4:  4) — "the  Lord,"  as  used  by  him,  being  the 
Lord  Jesus.     In  him  we  see  most  plainly  the  grounds  which  the 

Christian  has   for   perpetual  joy.     (See  also  2  Cor.  6:  10.) 

"Pray  without  ceasing  ' — literally,  with  no  interruption,  no  lapse 
from  the  praying  spirit.  Our  good  sense  should  guide  us  in  our 
construction  of  this  precept.  So  guided,  we  shall  expound  it  to 
enjoin,  not  the  unceasing  repetition  of  words  of  prayer,  but  main- 
taining perpetually  the  mental  attitude  of  prayer  toward  God — 
always  trusting,  waiting,  resting,  and  on  all  specially  fit  occasions, 

imploring.     (See  Eph.'^fi:  18,  and  Col.  4:  2,  and  Luke  18:  1.) 

Let  this  be  coupled  with  thanksgiving  for  every  ihing^  for  God's 
gifts  are  every-where  and  never  cease. 

19.  Quench  not  the  Spirit. 

20.  Despise  not  prophesy ings. 

21.  Prove  all  things;  hold  fast  that  which  is  good. 

22.  Abstain  from  all  appearance  of  evil. 

"Quench"  suggests  the  figure  of  fire — one  of  the  figures  under 
which  the  agency  of  the  Spirit  is  presented.     (See  Acts  2:  3.) 

A  spark  may  be  but  too  easily  extinguished. The  allusion  here 

may  be  specially  to  those  peculiar  spiritual  gifts,  common  in  the 
apostolic  age,  some  of  which  may  have  been  abused  by  the  ex- 
travagances of  some  among  the  excited  Thessalonians. They 

were  exposed  to  another  and  kindred  danger — that  of  despising 
prophesying.  Some  among  them  had  flagrantly  abused  and 
scandalized  the  whole  subject  of  prophecy,  claiming  special 
prophetic  foresight  while  really  having  none,  but  making  egre- 
gious blunders  and  utterly  false  pretensions — an  abuse  which 
rarely  fails  to  accompany  the  unnatural  excitement  of  the  notion 

that  the  day  of  the  Lord  is  about  to  appear. Ellicott  comments 

thus :  "  The  very  exhortation  before  us  gains  all  its  point  from 
the  fact  that  the  more  sober  thinkers  had  been  led  by  the  present 
state  of  things  to  undervalue  and  unduly  reject  all  the  usual  man- 
ifestations of  the  Spirit." 

Under  these  circumstances  it  was  specially  appropriate  to  ex- 
hort— "Prove  all  things;  hold  fast  upon  the  good."  The  good 
sense  God  has  given  you  should  be  put  to  use  pre-eminently  in 
seasons  of  such  unnatural  excitement. 

We  must  explain  v.  22  to  mean— not  every  thing  that  looks 
like  evil — that  has  its   ^'appearance,''   but  rather  every  form  oi 


208  I.   THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.  V. 

evil — all  its  various  manifestations — for  real  evil,  and  not  evil  that 
is  so  only  in  appearance,  is  the  subject  of  thought  here._  We 
may  apply  it  to  the  point  particularly  in  mind.  Then  it  will 
suggest  that  on  the  one  hand,  some  were  prophesying  wildly 
about  the  sudden  coming  of  the  Lord ;  while  others  were  repelled, 
being  disgusted  with  such  crude  fancies  and  such  misleading  and 
ill-working  predictions,  and  were  even  led  to  despise  the  legiti- 
mate functions  cf  the  prophetic  Spirit.  Abstain  therefore  from 
every  form  of  evil.     These  extremes  are  all  mischievous. 

23.  And  the  very  God  of  peace  sanctify  you  wholly ;  and 
Ij)ray  God  your  whole  spirit  and  soul  and  body  be  preserved 
blameless  unto  the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

24.  Faithful  is  he  that  calleth  you,  who  also  will  do  it. 

"The  God  of  peace" — so  called  because  he  gives  peace — all 
spiritual  blessings;  whose  voice  Jesus  re-echoed  when  he  said 
(John  14:  27)— ^" Peace  I  leave  with  you;  my  peace  I  give  unto 
you." "Sanctify  you  wholly" — the  word  for  "wholly''  sug- 
gesting completeness — that  which  reaches  every  part,  every  faculty 
and  power  of  your  being — a  word  chosen  manifestly  for  its  com- 
prehensiveness. It  is  not  the  word  in  common  use  for  "  per- 
fect," *  which  would  rather  suggest  the  finished  quality  of  the 
work,  as  this  does  the  universality  of  its  application. 

The  careful  reader  would  notice  that  in  our  version  the  words 
"I  pray  God"  are  in  italics.  They  give  the  sense  correctly 
because  the  Greek  verb  is  in  a  form  which  implies  desire, 
prayer.     The  words  "I  pray  God"  are   not  expressed,  nor  need 

they  be. The  exact  translation  of  the  next  clause  would  be — 

not  "your  loliole  spirit,"  etc.,  but  may  your  spirit,  soul  and  body 
be  kept  whole — kept  unblemished,  so  as  to  be  found  blameless  in 
the  coming  of  the  Lord.  Its  location  makes  it  what  grammarians 
call  a  second  predicate — adding  a  secondary  idea  to  the  verb, 
indicating  as  to  the  point  of  Paul's  prayer,  lioio,  in  what  man- 
ner, their  spirit,  soul  and  body  should  be  kept.  The  idea  is  not 
that  the  whole  spirit  rather  than  any  part  of  it,  or  the  whole  body 
as  opposed  to  part  of  the  body — may  be  kept;  but  that  all — spirit, 
soul,  body — may  be  kept  all  right,  all  pure,  all  true  to  God;  and 

so  be  found  blameless   when  Christ  shall   come. The  calling 

One — He  who  now  calls  you  to  this  pure  and  spotless  life — is 
faithful  to  his  promises ;  you  can  trust  him  to  second  your  en- 
deavors and  to  respond  to  your  prayers  for  this  purity. As  to 

classifying  the  faculties  of  man — "spirit,"  "soul,"  "body" — it 
is  not  well  to  press  the  distinction  beyond  the  popular  into  the 
strictly  metaphysical  sense.  Paul  would  not  imply  that  the  body 
has  certain  sins  of  its  own,  in  which  spirit  and  soul  have  no  re- 
sponsibility; but,  popularly  considered,  he  would  speak  of  some 
sins  as  of  tlie  body  in  point  of  the  temptation  to  them,  while 
others  are  of  the  mind  only.     1   doubt  if  we  gain   any  thing  for 


I.    THESSALONIANS. CHAP.  V.  209 

practical  purposes  by  attempting  to  draw  any  line  between  spirit 
and  soul  as  used  here.  Paul  meant  to  say — May  all  your  powers 
— whether  of  mind  or  body — be  brought  under  sanctifying  grace, 
and  so  be  kept  true  to  their  purpose,  in  harmony  with  your  full 
consecration  to  God. 

If  the  question  be  raised — Can  we  suppose  that  Paul  meant 
what  he  has  here  said  ?  I  must  reply  that  the  question  seems  to 
me  entirely  impertinent  and  out  of  place.  When  inspired  words 
stand  before  us,  our  first  question  asks  for  their  exact  signifi- 
cance: What  did  Paul,  taught  by  the  Spirit,  really  mean?  This 
being  found,  it  only  remains  to  accept  it  as  true  and  use  it  faith- 
fully, honestly,  prayerfully,  to  the  ends  for  which  it  may  seem  to 
be  written.  How  should  we  dare  to  treat  the  word  of  God 
otherwise  than  thus  ?  If  the  question  be  whether  it  is  proper  to 
pray  for  such  a  degree  of  sanctification  in  the  present  life,  it  will 
not  be  out  of  place  to  suggest  that  we  have  yet  higher  authority 
than  Paul's  to  pray  for  a  degree  of  sanctification  which  surely 
can  not  be  less  than  this :  "  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is 

in    heaven." Or    if   the    still    further    question    be    pressed 

whether  we  can  reasonably  exercise  faith  in  offering  such  prayer, 
we  have  the  same  question  to  settle  in  regard  to  this  same  Lord's 
prayer:  Does  he  prescribe  for  us  certain  words  of  prayer  and  at 
the  same  time  teach  us  (1)  Always  to  pray  in  faith ;  yet  (2)  That 
it  is  not  legitimate  or  suitable  to  have  faith  in  off'ering  the  very 
prayer  which  himself  has  prescribed  ? 

25.  Brethren,  pray  for  us. 

26.  Greet  all  the  brethren  with  a  holy  kiss. 

27.  I  charge  you  by  the  Lord,  that  this  epistle  be  read 
unto  all  the  holy  brethren. 

28.  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you. 
Amen. 

As  I  have  expressed  my  prayers  for  you,  so  I  now  beseech  you 
to  pray  in  like  manner  for  myself  and  my  fellow-laborers  in  the 
gospel. 

The  solemn  charge  (v.  27)  is  unusual  and  seems  to  imply  at 
least  a  shade  of  fear  that  some  of  the  "disorderly'*  members  of 
that  church — men  swept  from  their  moorings  by  the  fascinations 
of  the  exciting  doctrine  of  the"  near  coming  of  Christ,  might 
repel  the  apostle's  counsel  and  obstruct  the  public  reading  of  this 
epistle.  Hence  this  solemn  injunction,  resting  on  his  authority 
as  an  apostle ;  and  then  his  closing  benediction. 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  THESSALONIANS. 

II. 


INTRODUCTION. 

How  much  time  intervened  between  the  first  and  this 
second  letter  can  not  be  determined  with  entire  precision. 
Obviously  the  same  companions  (Silvanus  and  Timothy)  are 
still  with  him.  Also  similar  external  trials,  apparently  from 
hostile  Jews,  are  indicated.  (Compare  Acts  18  :  6  with 
1  Thess.  2 :  14-16  and  2  Thess.  1 :  4  and  3 :  3.)  Inasmuch 
as  Paul  spent  one  year  and  a  half  at  Corinth,  and  as  1  Thes- 
salonians  was  with  little  doubt  written  there,  quite  early  in 
this  period,  this  second  epistle  may  with  great  probability  be 
put  a  few  months  later,  and  before  he  left  Corinth  to  visit 
Asia  Minor  and  especially  Ephesus  (Acts  18:  18).  Some- 
where in  A.  D.  53  we  may  assign  the  date  of  this  epistle. 

The  special  occasion  was  obviously  of  the  same  general 
character  as  that  of  the  first — a  feverish  and  pernicious  ex- 
citement in  regard  to  the  speedy  coming  of  the  Lord,  coup- 
led with  neglect  of  the  common  duties  of  life.  The  first 
epistle  had  failed  to  correct  these  erroneous  notions;  nay,  it 
is  perhaps  probable  that  through  their  misconception  of  his 
meaning  it  may  have  even  aggravated  the  evils.  Hence 
this  second  epistle  aimed  to  show  them  that  the  Lord's  com- 
ing was  not  then  near  in  the  sense  they  were  assuming  ;  and 
that  it  was  vital  to  their  own  spiritual  welfare  and  to  the 
honor  of  the  gospel  that  they  should  be  quiet ;  should  devote 
themselves  to  the  ordinary  duties  of  life  ;  earn  their  own 
bread  by  honest  industry  ;  and  labor  to  restore  to  better  views 
and  a  better  life  those  who,  in  these  respects,  were  walking 
disorderly. 

One  of  the  l)cautifLd  things  in  this  epistle  is  the  spirit  of 
the  apostle,  manifested  toward  these  erring  brethren.  AVe 
can  not  doubt  that  their  crude  notions,  their  wild  excitement, 
their  unteachable  spirit,  and  their  very  objectionable  ways 
of  life,  annoyed  the  apostle  exceedingly  ;  yet  his  forbearance 

(210) 


INTRODUCTION.  211 

and  good  temper  are  wonderful.  He  sees  all  the  good  qual- 
ities that  appear  in  the  church ;  he  thanks  God  for  all  that 
the  gospel  has  wrought  for  them  ;  he  labors  to  comfort  them 
under  all  their  trials ;  and  if  some  few  prove  incorrigible 
under  all  efforts  to  correct  their  errors  and  their  wayward 
lives,  he  counsels  the  better  brethren  to  withdraw  unosten- 
tatiously from  their  society  that  they  may  feel  the  lack  of 
moral  support  in  their  bad  notions  and  bad  lives,  and  so 
hopefully  be  led  to  wiser  thought.  But  they  were  by  no 
means  to  treat  these  erring  ones  as  enemies,  but  rather  to 
admonish  them  as  brethren.  Not  a  word  of  impatience  with 
their  dullness,  or  of  contempt  for  their  folly :  nothing  which 
would  even  suggest  that  he  felt  hurt  by  their  lack  of  appre- 
ciation of  his  counsels  escapes  him.  His  genial,  loving  spirit 
bears  him  entirely  above  these  feelings  which  unhappily  appear 
but  too  often  in  smaller  minds  and  less  chastened  souls — so 
that  we  may  take  some  precious  lessons  from  the  great 
apostle  on  the  gospel  method  of  dealing  with  brethren  of 
mistaken  theories  and  fanatical  spirit,  yet  who  are  not  hope- 
lessly false  at  heart,  or  lost  toward  God. 


EPISTLE  TO  THE  THESSALONIANS. 

II. 


CHAPTER  I. 


Introduction  (v,  1,  2);  thanks  to  God  for  their  growing  faith 
and  mutual  love,  and  patience  under  persecution  (v.  3,  4) ;  which 
suggests  that  God  righteously  rewards  his  saints,  but  sends  trib- 
ulation upon  their  persecutors  (v.  5-8) ; — even  everlasting  de- 
struction at  and  after  Christ's  second  coming  (v.  9,  10);  prayers 
in  their  behalf  (v.  11,  12). 

1.  Paul,  and  Silvanus,  and  Timotheus,  unto  the  church 
of  the  Thessalonians  in  God  our  Father  and  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ : 

2.  Grace  unto  you,  and  peace,  from  God  our  Father  and 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

This  introduction  is  substantially  the  same  as  in  the  first 
epistle. 

3.  AVe  are  bound  to  thank  God  always  for  you,  brethren, 
as  it  is  meet,  because  that  your  faith  groweth  exceedingly, 
and  the  charity  of  every  one  of  you  all  toward  each  other 
aboundeth ; 

4.  So  that  we  ourselves  glory  in  you  in  the  churches  of 
God,  for  your  patience  and  faith  in  all  your  joersecutions  and 
tril)ulations  that  ye  endure  : 

5.  Wliich  is  a  manifest  token  of  the  righteous  judgment 
of  God,  that  ye  may  be  counted  worthy  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  for  which  ye  also  suffer: 

As  usual  in  the  New  Testament,  so  here  "  charity  "  is  precisely 
love — in  this  case  love  of  the  brethren.  Their  faith  and  love  had 
developed  so  nobly  that  Paul  and  his  associates  were,  in  a  sense, 
proud  of  such  exemplary  converts  and  commended  their  example 
to  other  churches  as  a  model  of  faith  and  patience  under  perse- 
cution. 

This  fact  (persecution)  suggested  how  reasonable  it  was  that 
Clod  should  visit  both  the  persecutor  and  liis  victims,  with  right- 
eous, discriminating  awards — eternal  blessedness  to  the  latter — 

(2T2) 


II.  THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.    I.  213 

they  being  counted  worthy  of  that  blessed  kingdom  for  which 
they  were  here  suffering. 

6.  Seeing  it  is  a  righteous  thing  with  God  to  recompense 
tribulation  to  them  that  trouble  you  ; 

7.  And  to  you  who  are  troubled  rest  with  us,  when  the 
Lord  Jesus  shall  be  revealed  from  heaven  with  his  mighty 
angels, 

8.  In  flaming  fire  taking  vengeance  on  them  that  know 
not  God,  and  that  obey  not  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ : 

Inasmuch  as  it  is  righteous  on  God's  part  to  requite  with  trib- 
ulation those  who  bring  tribulation  upon  his  people  for  nothing 
in  them  save  their  loyalty  to  God ;  and  to  you,  the  troubled  ones, 
rest  together  with  us,  his  apostles,  when  the  Lord  shall  be  re- 
vealed from   heaven. "His   mighty  angels"    is    literally   the 

angels  of  his  might — angels  who  embody  and  represent  his  own 
energy,  and  are  therefore  equal  to  any  service  to  which  he  as- 
signs them. As  to  the  agencies  of  this  terrific  destruction,  we 

can  only  say  that  "  fire  "  is  almost  universally  the  symbol  as  pre- 
sented in  the  Scriptures,  first  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  last  of 
the  New.  In  the  Old  we  find  it  in  Psalms  11:6  and  50 :  3  ;  Dan. 
7:  9,  10  and  Isa.  33  :  14  and  Mai.  4 :  1;  and  in  the  New,  in  Mark 
9:  43,  44  and  Matt.  25:  41  and  2  Pet.  3:  10,  12,  etc.  The  at- 
tempts to  improve  upon  these  scriptural  representations  by  dis- 
counting from  their  literal  significance,  and  by  questioning  the 
possibilities  or  probabilities  of  the  case,  are  of  very  questionable 
wnsdom  and  value.  Rather,  it  should  be  assumed  that  the  Di- 
vine Spirit  chose  the  best  human  language  and  imagery  at  com- 
mand for  the  one  purpose  of  being  understood,  and  has  not  se- 
riously missed  his  aim  by  a  bad  choice  of  imagery  for  his  pur- 
pose. 

"  Them  that  know  not  God  "  and  "  them  that  obey  not  the  gos- 
pel " — are  here  made  two  distinct  classes  by  the  defining  Greek 
article  prefixed  to  each.  The  first  includes  heathen,  not  enlight- 
ened as  to  the  gospel,  who  yet  "  did  not  like  to  retain  God  in 
their  knowledge,"  and  therefore  lived  in  guilty  ignorance  of  what 
they  might  have  known ;  while  the  second  class  had  heard  but 
would  not  obey  the  gospel  of  Jesus.  Upon  both  classes,  and 
upon  each  according  to  the  measure  of  its  guilt,  will  God  take 
vengeance. 

9.  Who  shall  be  punished  with  everlasting  destruction 
from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and  from  the  glory  of  his 
power ; 

10.  When  he  shall  come  to  be  glorified  in  his  saints,  and 
to  be  admired  in  all  them  that  believe  (because  our  testimony 
among  you  was  believed)  in  that  day. 

•'  Destruction"  can  mean  nothing  less  than  the  ruin  of  all  hap- 
10 


214  II.  THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.  I. 

piness  and  even  of  all  hope.  Of  the  elements  of  woe  involved  in 
it  we  can  know  (apparently)  only  what  we  may  infer  from  these 
two  general  sources:  (a)  The  laws  of  the  human  mind;  and 
(6)  the  teachings  of  inspiration  on  the  point  of  God's  righteous 
displeasure  against  sinners;  his  threatenings  as  to  their  eternal 
doom ;  and  his  retributive  judgments,  administered  on  a  limited 
but  illustrative  scale  in  this  world. 

To  interpret  this  word  "  destruction  "  to  mean  annihilation — 
the  extinction  of  being — is  wholly  in  conflict  with  the  obvious 
sense  of  the  Scriptures.  Such  a  doom  could  not  with  the  least 
propriety  be  called  everlasting.  The  word  "aionios"  as  used 
here  of  this  destruction  has  been  regarded  by  the  mass  of  sober 
critics  ever  since  Paul  wrote  these  words,  as  denoting  a  futurity 
extending  onward  in  time  without  end. 

The  word  "  from  "  {''from  the  presence,"  etc.),  like  the  Greek 
preposition  *  waich  it  well  translates,  may  in  itself  admit  either 
of  these  two  senses;  i.  e.,  (a)  to  indicate  the  source  whence  the 
destruction  comes;  or  {b)  its  locality^  as  being  far  away  from — 
in  this  case,  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord.  The  latter  is  to  be 
preferred  here  on  two  special  grounds: — (1.)  As  harmonizing 
better  with  the  word  "  presence"  ("face")  of  the  Lord,  there 
being  no  particular  pertinence  in  representing  this  destruction 
as  coming  from  his  face  ("presence")  as  the  source  whence  it 
proceeds;  and  (2)  as  harmonizing  entirely  with  the  very  frequent 
representation  of  this  punishment  as  involving  utter  banishment 
from  God  and  from  the  home  of  his  presence,  purity  and  blessed- 
ness— away  "into  outer  darkness':  "without the  city."  Far 
away  also  "  from  the  glory  of  his  power" — the  glory  which  em- 
anates  from  the   displays  of  his  power  and   majesty. These 

manifestations  of  the  glory  of  his  power  will  be  made  in  their 
fullness  when  the  Lord  (Jesus)  shall  have  come  (for  the  final 
judgment)  to  be  glorified  in  the  person  of  his  saints,  and  to  be  an 
object  of  admiring  wonder  as  seen  in  the  light  of  his  saved  peo- 
ple— their  case  exhibiting  and  unfolding  marvelously  the  riches 

of  his  mercy  and  the  glory  of  his  power  in  their  salvation. It 

is  proper  (Paul  would  suggest)  to  call  these  things  to  your  thought 
because  ye  believed  our  gospel  testimony,  and  so  were  brought 
into  the  class  of  his  saved  people.  Ye  yourselves — enduring  to 
the  end — will  be  found  in  that  illustrative  host  of  the  redeemed. 

11.  Wherefore  also  we  pray  always  for  yon,  that  our  God 
"would  count  you  worthy  of  this  calling,  and  fuliill  all  the 
good  pleasure  of  /m  goodness,  and  the  work  of  faith  with 
power: 

12.  That  the  name  of  our  Lord  *Tesus  Christ  may  be  glo- 
rified in  Yf>u,  and  ye  in  him,  according  to  the  grace  of  our 
God  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Unto  which  result  wc  pray  continually  for  you  that  our  God 
*  ano. 


II.    THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.    II.  215 

would  count  you  worthy  of  the  gospel  call,  regarding  your  recep- 
tion of  it  and  your  Christian  life  under  it  as  responding  worthily 
to  your  privileges. 

In  the  clause — "  all  the  good  pleasure  of  his  goodness,"  we  must 
decide  between  referring  these  words  to  the  good  pleasure  and 
goodness  of  God,  or  of  man.  Our  translators  took  the  former 
construction  and  indicated  it  by  supplying  the  word  "his" 
(God's).  But  the  other  construction,  referring  these  words  to 
man,  is  to  be  preferred  on  these  two  grounds ;  (a)  The  usage  of 
the  word  ["goodness"];  and  (6)  The  closely  related  clause  fol- 
lowing— "  the  work  of  faith" — which  must  certainly  refer  to  man. 

As  to  the  usage  of  the  word  for  "goodness,""^  it   is  never 

used  by  Paul  of  God  but  only  of  man — the  cases  other  than  this 
being  Rom.  15 :  14  and  Gal.  5 :  22  and  Eph.  5  :  9.  Moreover, 
all  the  other  words  of  the  clause  are  pertinent  as  applied  to  man 
— that  God  would  fulfill  every  good  purpose — every  impulse  to- 
ward moral  goodness  causing  their  fullest  and  most  healthy  de- 
velopment; and  also  the  work  of  faith — all  that  faith  can  do  in 
your  souls — with  power. 

Verse  12  indicates  that  the  results  of  this  work  of  God's  grace 
will  glorify  the  name  of  Jesus  in  them,  and  exalt  their  souls  to 
final  glory  in  him — a  mutual  result,  such  as  the  grace  of  God  is 
wont  to  achieve,  and  was  provided  in  order  to  accomplish. 


^J*i< 


CHAPTER   II. 

Beseeches  them  not  to  be  agitated  by  the  expectation  of  the 
very  near  coming  of  the  Lord  (v.  1,  2);  for  the  day  will  not  come 
till  there  shall  be  a  great  apostasy  and  the  man  of  sin  shall  appear 
whom  he  describes  (v.  3,  4),  of  which  he  had  told  them  before 
(v.  5) :  speaks  of  that  which  was  detaining  this  manifestation 
(v.  6,  7);  and  of  the  coming  and  destruction  of  that  Wicked  One 
(v.  8),  whose  deceitful  Avorks  are  further  described  (v.  9,  10),  and 
also  God's  righteous  judgments  in  the  destruction  of  himself  and 
his  deluded  victims  (v.  11,  12).  But  for  his  beloved,  saved  breth- 
ren he  gives  thanks  to  God  (v.  13,  14);  urges  them  to  steadfast- 
ness in  life  and  in  the  truth  (v.  15),  and  gives  expression  to  his 
prayers  in  their  behalf  (v.  16,  17). 

1.  Now  we  beseech  you,  brethren,  by  the  coming  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  hj  our  gathering  together  unto  him, 

2.  That  ye  be  not  soon  shaken  in  mind,  or  be  troubled, 
neither  by  spirit,  nor  by  word,  nor  by  letter  as  from  us,  as 
that  the  day  of  Christ  is  at  hand. 

In  the  exposition  of  this  often  controverted  and  often  misinter- 
*■  ayadcjawt/. 


216  II.  THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.  II. 

preted  passage  (v.  1-12),  it  seems  to  me  supremely  important  to 
adhere  closely  to  ivliat  is  loritten  and  to  the  legitimate  sense  of 
these  words,  unbiased  by  any  preconceived  theories  whatever. 
No  labor  should  be  spared  to  ascertain  definitely  what  his  words 
must  in  themselves  mean. 

In  the  words — "By  the  coming" — our  translators  assume  the 
sense  of  adjuration:  we  adjure  you  hy  that  awful  coming,  etc. 
But  this  is  never  the  sense  of  the  Greek  preposition  used  here. 
We  must  therefore  take,  instead,  the  well  established  sense  con- 
cerning— in  respect  to — that  expected  coming.  That  you  may 
better  understand  this  coming  and  its  necessary  antecedents — I 

now  write. "  And  in  respect  to  our  being  gathered  together 

before  him  " — i.  e.,  when  he  shall  come. "  That  ye  be  not  sud- 
denly shaken  " — in  the  sense  of  being  agitated,  disquieted,  as  op- 
posed to  a  calm,  settled  mood  of  thought   and  feeling. "In 

mind" — should  rather  hQ—from  (or  out  of)  your  mind  [nous] — 
your  self-possession,  your  good  sense   so  as  to  act  as  men  who 

have  lost  their  reason. Nor  yet  be  even  so  much  as  troubled, 

for  which  there  is  no  occasion.  "  Troubled  "  represents  a  lower 
grade  of  anxiety,  and  disturbance  of  feeling. 

Next,  as  to  the  source  of  this  disturbance.  Do  not  be  disturbed 
by  any  spirit — which  in  this  connection  must  mean — by  any  one 
assuming  to  have  the  spirit  of  prophecy, — whether  coming  to  you 
orally  or  by  letter  as  if  from  us.  This  shows  that  some  were 
pushing  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  immediate  appearing  by  claiming 
Paul's  authority,  either  oral  or  written.  This  claim  Paul  repu- 
diates as  wholly  unfounded.  I  never  said  so — never  meant  so ; 
and  I  beseech  you,  let  no  assertion  or  even  intimation  to  this  ef- 
fect disturb  you,  as  implying  that  the  day  of  the  Lord  is  close 
upon  us. 

Paul's  carefully  chosen  words — "  as  if  the  day  of  the  Lord 
were  at  hand" — seem  to  imply — not  that  they  affirmed  Paul  had 
said  so,  but  that  he  must  have  meant  so.  They  reached  their 
conclusion  by  their  special  construction  put  upon  his  words.  Paul 
therefore  pointedly  denies  any  such  construction.  And  to  protect- 
himself,  and  the  still  dearer  interests  of  truth,  from  such  perver- 
sion and  misapprehension,  he  alludes  again  below  (v.  15)  to  the 
things  they  had  been  taught  by  his  words  and  letters,  beseeching 
them  to  hold  f\ist  those  truths  and  the  Avords  in  which  they  lay, 
and  to  hold  them  without  perversion.  Yet  more,  in  closing  this 
epistle,  ho  is  careful  to  put  his  own  autograph  to  it  as  the  token 
of  his  own  hand — a  precaution  which  significantly  implies  that 
his  authority  had  been  tampered  with  in  a  way  by  no  means 
pleitsant. 

The  verb  translated,  " is  at  hand"  indicates  an  event  very  near, 
standing  directly  in  upon  us.  It  is  used  not  infrequently  for 
things  present  as  opposed  to  things  absent  in  the  sense  of  remote 
in  time  future  (c.  y.,  Uom.  8:  38  and  1  Cor.  3 :  22). 

3.  Let  no  man  deceive  you  by  any  means :  for  that  day 


II.  THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.  II.  217 

shall  not  come,  except  there  come  a  falling  away  first,  and 
that  man  of  sm  be  revealed,  tbe  son  of  perdition ; 

4.  Who  opposeth  and  exalteth  himself  above  all  that  is 
called  God,  or  that  is  worshiped ;  so  that  he  as  God  sitteth 
in  the  temple  of  God,  showing  himself  that  he  is  God. 

Let  no  man  deceive  you  by  any  means  icliaiever,  for  Paul  had 
specified  several  of  these  means  of  misleading  their  minds ;  and 
now,  lest  there  might  yet  be  some  possible  points  omitted,  he  gives 
his  admonition  the  widest  scope,  to  guard  against  every  possible 
method  of  deception  which  could  mislead  them  from  the  truth. 

The  reader  will  notice  that  the  clause,  "  that  day  shall  not 
come,"  is  in  italics,  indicating  that  no  corresponding  words  ap- 
pear in  the  original.  Yet  the  words  that  follow,  as  well  as  those 
which  precede,  fully  justify  the  introduction  of  these  italic  words. 

The  reader  should  be  reminded  that  Paul  said — not  "  a  falling 
away,"  but  the  falling  away,  the  well  known,  great  apostasy,  of 
which  you  have  been  told  often.  This  doctrine  of  a  great  apos- 
tasy, at  some  time,  was  currently  taught  by  all  the  apostles — by 
Paul,  1  Tim.  4 :  1  and  2  Tim.  3 :  1 ;  by  Peter,  2  Eps.  2:1;  and 
by  John,  1  Eps.  2:  18  and  4:  3. 

Paul  proceeds  to  describe  yet  further  the  salient  features  of  this 
great  apostasy — viz.,  in  the  appearing  and  coming  into  bold  prom- 
inence of  "  the  man  of  sin."  Let  us  hold  well  in  mind  that  this 
is  Paul's  first  descriptive  designation,  ''The  man  of  sin."  His 
one  distinctive,  decisive  characteristic  is  siii — wickedness.  He  is 
a  man  of  towering,  appalling  wickedness ;  a  sinner  of  the  black- 
est dye ;  a  head-reljel  against  God,  of  most  daring  impiety.  And, 
let  it  be  noted,  he  is  07ie  man,  a  single  individual.  It  would  be 
an  unpardonable  violation  of  all  just  laws  of  language  to  make 
him  an  abstract  system  of  wickedness  instead  of  a  concrete  sin- 
ner; or  a  long  succession  of  men,  as  (e.  g.)  the  popes  of  Rome, 

instead  of  one  man  only. This  strict  defining  of  the  man  as 

an  individual  is  made  yet  stronger  by  the  next  descriptive  pointr- 
a  clause  in  apposition — viz.,  "the  son  of  perdition,"  a  man  born 
for  destruction,  who  by  good  right  inherits  perdition.  It  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  our  Lord  uses  these  identical  words  of 
Judas  (John  17:  12).  Judas  was  one  individual  man;  so,  there- 
fore, is  this  "  man  of  sin." Let  it  also  be  noticed  that  Paul 

says  of  this  "man  of  sin,"  "shall  be  revealed" — the  very  same 
word  which  is  customarily  used  for  the  revelation  of  the  Son  of 

man  in  the  sense  of  his  manifestation  before  human  eyes. 

Some  of  his  very  descriptive  points  are  put  in  v.  4.  He  sets  him- 
self against  and  lifts  himself  above  every  one  called  God,  every 
thing  worshiped — a  statement  made  purposely  broad  enough  to 
include  both  Christian  and  pagan  objects  of  worship,  the  true  God 
and  false  gods  also.  (Compare  here  1  Cor.  8:  5).  For  the  word 
"  sebasma, '  an  object  of  pagan  worship,  see  Acts  17:  23.  This 
"man  of  sin"  thus  lifts  himself  above  all  objects  of  human  wor- 
ship, known  or  conceivable,  whether  the  true  God  or  the  false 


218  II.  THESSALONIAXS. — CHAP.  II. 

gods  of  the  heathen. Yet  more ;  he  thrusts  himself  into  the 

very  temple  of  God  and  sits  down  there,  purposely  obtruding  him- 
self upon  mankind  as  alone  worthy  of  all  worship.  Instead  of 
saying,  "  m  the  temple,"  Paul  says  into  the  temple,  which  seems 
to  imply  his  thrusting  himself  into  it,  and  there  taking  his  seat 
as  one  rightly  there,  shoAving  himself  oflP  as  being  really  the  su- 
preme God. What  particular  temple  of  God  is  here  referred 

to,  it  is  not  easy  to  decide.  May  it  be  the  church  of  God,  which 
is  often  .spoken  of  as  his  temple  ?  But  in  this  sort  of  description, 
a  figurative  sense  of  the  word  seems  inappropriate. — Is  it  the  old 
Jewish  temple  ?  There  are  difficulties  in  supposing  that  to  be  in 
existence  at  the  time  referred  to.  May  it  be  an  ideal  temple — 
i  e.,  any  place  consecrated  to  the  worship  of  God — to  thrust  one's 
self  into  which  and  sit  down  there,  w^ould  be  to  assume  the  rights 
and  prerogatives  of  real  divinity  ?  This  seems  to  be  the  least 
objectionable  construction.  But  the  decision  of  this  point  is  by 
no  means  of  vital  moment. 

On  the  distinct  personality  of  this  "man  of  sin,"  Ellicott  re- 
marks :  "  He  is  no  mere  set  of  principles,  or  succession  of  oppo- 
nents, but  is  one  single  personal  being,  as  truly  man  as  he  wdiom 
he  impiously  opposes." 

Much  has  been  written  to  identify  this  "man  of  sin"  with  the 
popes  of  Rome.  It  ought  to  be  a  sufficient  refutation  of  all  such 
expositions  :  (1.)  That  this  "  man  of  sin  "  is  not  a  legion  of  men 
following  each  other  in  long  succession  for  twelve  or  more  cen- 
turies, but  is  unquestionably  one  man,  and  but  one.  If  descrip- 
tive terms  are  allowed  to  have  any  meaning;  if  the  whole  tenor 
of  a  description,  involving  numerous  distinct  points,  all  defining 
one  man,  shall  be  allowed  their  legitimate  force,  there  is  no  evad- 
ing this  conclusion.  (2.)  On  the  point  of  assuming  divine  hon- 
ors— thrusting  himself  into  the  very  temple  of  God  and  showing 
off  himself  to  be  God — it  were  at  once  false  and  foul  to  claim  that 
the  popes  answer  to  this  description.  Men  who  charge  such  im- 
piety upon  the  popes  should  at  least  be  invited  to  reconsider  the 
charge  in  the  light  of  the  ninth  commandment. 

5.  Remember  ye  not,  that,  when  I  was  yet  with  you,  I 
told  you  these  things? 

So  it  seems  these  points  had  been  spoken  of  definitely  while 
Paul  was  among  them. 

6.  And  now  ye  know  what  withholdeth  that  he  might  be 
revealed  in  his  time. 

7.  For  the  mystery  of  iniquity  doth  already  work:  only 
he  who  now  lettctli  ivlll  let,  until  he  be  taken  out  of  the  way. 

This  "now"  seems  to  mean  accordingly,  consequently;  and  not 
tlie  present  time  as  distinct  from  any  other — i.  c,  is  logical,  not 
temporal  in  sense.  Ye  know  what  holds  him  back,  restrains, 
detains  him  from  manifesting  himself,  unto  the  result  of  his  being 


.11.  THESSALONIANS.— CHAP.  II.  219 

manifested  in  his  own  proper  time,  and  not  before  it.  But  what 
Paul  alludes  to  as  known  to  his  readers  is  by  no  means  very  clear 
at  this  distance  of  time.  Was  it  the  power  of  organized  society 
which  held  in  check  such  arrant  impiety  ? 

This  definite  time  is  the  fitting  season — so  called,  apparently, 
with  reference  to  the  divine  purpose — the  time  arranged  for  in 
the  plan  of  God. 

Yet  further  he  says  that  this  mysterious  iniquity — this  astound- 
ing embodiment  of  sin — was  already  in  energetic  action  as  an 
under  current,  not  coming  up  prominently  to  the  surface — the 
withholding  power  still  detaining  his  manifestations  until  it 
should  be  taken  away. 

The  translators  of  our  version  disregarded  one  good  rule  in 
translating  the  same  Greek  word  ''wiihholdeth"  in  v,  6  and 
"letteth"  in  v.  7.  In  each  case  the  word  is  a  participle,  yet  is 
the  same  in  every  respect  save  that  in  v.  6  it  is  neuter — the'with- 
holding  thing  ov  poiver ;  and  in  v.  7,  masculine;  the  withholding 

one. "  Letteth,"  of  course,  is  in  the  sense  now  mostly  obsolete 

— meaning  not  permit,  but   prevent,  restrain. But  what  this 

withholding,  restraining  power  or  personage  was,  who  can  tell? 
The  general  tenor  of  Paul's  language  seems  to  imply  that  it  was 
somewhat  definitely  known  then,  and  that  it  was  not  very  remote 
in  time.  More  mystery  hangs  over  these  points  than  over  any 
other  in  the  entire  passage.  Whatever  might  be  said  about  the 
mystery  of  his  working  then,  the  mystery  is  indefinitely  greater, 
it  would  seem,  to-day. 

8.  And  then  shall  that  Wicked  be  revealed,  whom  the 
Lord  shall  consume  with  the  spirit  of  his  mouth,  and  shall 
destroy  Avith  the  brightness  of  his  coming: 

And  then — this  word  being  obviously  emphatic — then  when 
the  restraining  personage  shall  be  out  of  the  way,  will  "  the  man 
of  sin — the  lawless  One — certainly  the  same  personage  described 
above  (v.  3) — come  to  the  front  and  be  revealed  to  the  view  of 
the  world.  But  here,  without  another  word  at  this  point  as  to 
his  operations;  without  a  hint  as  to  the  amount  of  time  which 
his  working  should  occupy,  Paul  proceeds  at  once  to  show  how  the 
Lord  will  meet  him  with  his  consuming  judgments: — "Whom  the 
Lord"  {i.  e.,  Jesus  Christ) — the  better  text  gives  it  "the  Lord 
Jesus" — "shall  consume  with  the  breath  of  his  mouth" — in  al- 
lusion probably  to  the  words  of  Isaiah  (11 :  1);  "He  shall  smite 
the  earth  with  the  rod  of  his  mouth  ;  with  the  breath  of  his  lips 
shall    he    slay   the  wricked:" — "And   shall   annihilate" — dispose 

of  utterly — "in  the  blaze  of  his  coming." But  what  "coming" 

is  this  ?  Is  it  Christ's  second  and  final  coming,  or  may  it  be 
some  long  prior  manifestation  of  retributive  judgment,  of  local 
and  limited  character? 

This  question  is  so  very  vital  to  the  bearing  of  our  whole  pas- 
sage upon  the  time  and  the  immediate  antecedents  of  the  second 


220  II.  THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.  II. 

and  final  coininc;  that  no  pains  should  be  spared  to  arrive  at  the 
true  interpretation. 

The  evidence  in  the  case  must  he  sought  in  two  lines  of  in- 
quiry: (1)  The  usage  of  Paul's  words ;  "(2)  The  exigencies  of 
the  whole  argument. 

(1)  As  to  the  words,  The  term  for  "brightness"  [epiphaneia] 
which  Greek  word  is  transferred  to  our  tongue  in  Eiriphamj,  is 
used  by  Paul  once  of  Christ's  first  coming  (2  Tim.  1 :  10);  but  in 
every  other  case,  of  his  final  coming,  the  following  being  all  the 
cases  of  its  usage: — 1  Tim.  6:  14  and  2  Tim.  4:   1,  8  and  Titus 

2:  13. With  these  cases  of  usage  before  us,  it  is  impossible  to 

justify  the  application  of  the  passage  to  any  thing  except  Christ's 

final  coming. So  of  the  other  word  for  coming — "  parousia" — 

which  the  strain  of  current  usage  compels  us,  in  a  connection  like 
this,  to  refer  to  Christ's  final  coming. 

(2)  The  exigencies  of  the  entire  argument  bear  in  the  same 
direction  and  to  the  same  point.  For  in  this  entire  passage  Paul 
is  speaking  not  of  antecedent  comings  in  retributive  judgment, 
but  of  the  great  final  coming  of  the  Lord,  of  the  very  "  day  of  the 
Lord"  about  which  the  Thessalonian  brethren  had  been  so 
agitated,  supposing  it  to  be  close  upon  them  even  then.  Beyond 
all  question  this  is  the  theme  under  discussion — the  matter  of 

which  Paul  is  writing. Then   further,  he  declares   that  this 

coming  will  not  take  place  until  a  certain  Impious  One  shall  have 
been  revealed.  "  The  man  of  sin,"  "the  son  of  perdition,"  "the 
lawless  one,"  must  needs  come  first.  Something  retards  his 
manifestation  now;  but  when  he  shall  have  come,  then  the  Lord 
Jesus  shall  blaze  forth  upon  him  in  the  brightness  and  glory  of 
his  final  coming;  and  so  the  end  shall  be! Thus  the  de- 
struction of  this  lawless  One — this  gigantic  sinner — and  the  final 
coming  of  the  Lord  Jesus  to  judgment,  are  synchronous.  This  iden- 
tical coming  of  the  Lord  is  the  very  agency  which  destroys  that 
monster  of  wickedness. 

9.  Even  him,  whose  coming  is  after  the  working  of  Satan 
with  all  power  and  signs  and  lying  wonders, 

10.  And  with  all  dcceivableness  of  unrighteousness  in  them 
that  perish  ;  because  they  received  not  the  love  of  the  trutli, 
that  they  might  be  saved. 

Paul  resumes  and  expands  his  description  of  the  work  wrought 
by  this  giant  sinner  and  deceiver.  His  "  coming"  (which  rc- 
marka])ly  is  the  very  word  j^cirousia,  so  commonly  used  of  Christ's 
coming)  is  in  accord  with,  and  according  to,  the  working  of  Satan. 
He  works  under  Satan  and  after  tlie  manner  of  Satan — is  Satan's 
chief  human  instrument  and  ally.  Of  course  it  must  follow  that 
this  man  of  sin  is  not  Satan  himself  But  he  works  after  the 
methods  and  upon  the  policy  of  Satan,  specially  in  the  point  of 
pretended  miracles,  which  this  group  of  terms — "every  sort  of 
powers  and  signs  and  wonders" — invariably  denotes.     Here  they 


II.  THESSALONIANS — CHAP.  II.  221 

are  lying  wonders  ;  mere  pretensions  to  miracles. "With  every 

form  of  wicked  deceit,  acting  and  effective  upon  those  who  are 
destined  to  perish  because  they  have   not  received  the  truth  in 

love  so  that  they  might  be   saved. To  admit  into  the  soul  the 

love  of  the  truth  is  vital  to  human  salvation.  Men  who  will  not 
receive  the  truth  in  love  but  repel  it  with  hate,  who  "  hate  the 
light  because  their  deeds  are  evil,"  debar  themselves  from  all  pos- 
sibility of  being  saved,  and  doom  themselves  by  the  sternest 
necessity  to  final  destruction. 

11.  And  for  this  cause  God  shall  send  them  strong  delu- 
sion, that  they  should  believe  a  lie: 

12.  That  they  all  might  be  damned  who  believed  not  the 
truth,  but  had  pleasure  in  unrighteousness. 

For  this  cause  God  sends  (not  "  shall  send  ") — but  present  tense 
— sends  upon  them  the  energy  [power]  of  delusion — an  energetic, 
mighty  delusion,  unto  their  believing  the  lie — that  false  thing — 
so  that  all  they  who  believe  not  the  truth  but  take  pleasure  in 
iniquity,  may  be  condemned.  This  is  Paul's  view  of  the  ultimate 
reason  why  God  does  and  must  give  over  self-deceived  sinners  to 
utter  and  remediless  ruin. 

The  explanation  is  suggested  by  the  case  of  those  who  have 
been  deceived  to  their  ruin  by  the  delusive  wiles  of  this  great  de- 
ceiver— "  the  man  of  sin  and  son  of  perdition." 

Before  we  pass  on  from  this  remarkable  passage,  it  will  perhaps 
be  expected  that  some  definite  view  will  be  hazarded  as  to  the 
identity  of  this  "man  of  sin" — on  the  questions — Who  is  he? 
Has  he  yet  come  ? 

For  the  double  purpose  of  distinctness  on  the  one  hand  and  of 
brevity  on  the  other,  I  make  these  points : 

1.  This  man  of  sin  is  a  real  man — not  an  ideal  one,  nor  any 
ideal  entity.  Moreover  he  is  one  man ;  not  an  indefinite  succes- 
sion of  men. 

2.  He  must  needs  come  before  Christ's  final  advent.  This  is 
beyond  question. 

3.  Yet  not  indefinitely  long  before,  but  only  immediately  before 
— so  close  upon  the  time  of  Christ's  final  coming  that  this  very 
coming  Avill  be  the  agency  and  of  course,  therefore,  the  hour  of 
his  destruction. 

4.  Consequently,  this  lawless  One — "the  man  of  sin" — has  not 
come  yet.  All  attempts  to  make  out  Nero  the  man,  or  the  popes 
of  Rome  to  be,  all  combined,  the  one  man  of  sin  are  utterly  pre- 
cluded. 

5.  Doubtless  when  he  does  come  his  well  defined  characteris- 
tics will  reveal  him  to  the  world  beyond  mistake  or  doubt.  Once 
revealed,  none  will  be  able  to  doubt  his  identity  with  this  de- 
scription. 

6.  Paul  may  have  been  enlightened  by  the  Spirit  to  say  all  he 
has  said  here,  yet  may  not  have  been  told  when,  reckoned  on  the 


222  II.   THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.    II. 

calendar,  the  man  of  sin  and  the  second  coming  of  the  Lord 
would  occur.  The  Spirit  may  have  given  Paul  certain  immedi- 
ately antecedent  facts  and  events,  and  yet  may  not  have  given 
him  at  all  the  dates,  and  perhaps  not  even  a  clear  general  im- 
pression of  the  distance  in  time  to  the  appearing  of  the  man  of 
sin  and  to  the  coming  of  the  Lord  for  his  destruction. 

7.  That  there  are  limits  to  the  knowledge  imparted  by  inspi- 
ration must  be  admitted  and  assumed;  for  inspiration  never 
reaches  omniscience.  Some  things  would  surely  lie  beyond  its 
range  of  imparted  knowledge. 

8.  The  very  explicit  teachings  of  Jesus  himself  suffice  to  show 
absolutely  that  one  of  the  never-to-be-revealed  things,  lying  there- 
fore beyond  the  range  of  inspiration,  was  the  precise  date  of  the 
second  and  final  coming.  Two  declarations,  essentially  identical 
upon  this  point,  suffice  for  proof:  viz.,  (a.)  "But  of  that  day  and 
that  hour  knoweth  no  man ;  no,  not  the  angels  that  are  in  heaven, 
neither  the  Son,  but  the  Father"  (Mark  13:  32,  also  Matt.  24: 

3G). (6.)  "It  is  not  for  you  (inspired  apostles)  to  know  the 

times  and  the  seasons  which  the  Father  hath  put  in  his  own  power" 
(Acts  1:7). 

9.  Hence  the  answer  to  our  question,  Who  is  this  man  of  sin? 
and  When  will  he  appear  ?  must  lie  over  till  he  comes. 

10.  It  is  perhaps  worthy  of  inquiry  whether  this  great  apostasy 
may  not  be  identical  with  that  of  which  John  speaks  (Rev.  20 : 
7-10).  That  of  John  followed  the  loosing  of  Satan  and  was 
worked  by  his  energy.  In  this  of  Paul,  the  coming  and  its  re- 
sults were  according  to  the  working  of  Satan.  In  both  deceit 
was  the  prominent  agency.  In  Paul's  account,  fire  is  the  means 
indicated  for  his  destruction:  "Whom  the  Lord  shall  consume^' 
— "shall  destroy  with  the  brigJiiness"  [possibly  the  blaze]  "of 
his  coming:  "  while  John  says — "  Fire  comes  down  from  God  out 
of  heaven  and  destroys  him;  " — and  finally  in  both  cases,  this  de- 
struction seems  to  immediately  precede  Christ's  coming  to  the 
last  judgment. 

The  striking  similarity  in  these  salient  points  supplies  mate- 
rial for  thought — perhaps  we  ought  to  say  for  speculation — for  a 
modest  reserve  should  make  us  slow  to  form  positive  conclusions. 

13.  But  we  are  bound  to  give  thanks  always  to  God  for 
you,  brethren  beloved  of  the  Lord,  because  God  hath  from  - 
the  beginning  chosen  you  to  salvation  through  sanctification 
of  the  Spirit  and  belief  of  the  truth : 

14.  Whereunto  he  called  you  by  our  gospel,  to  the  obtain- 
ing of  the  glory  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

15.  Therefore,  brethren,  stand  fast,  and  hold  the  traditions 
which  ye  have  been  taught,  whether  by  word,  or  our  epistle. 

Obviously  this  allusion  to  the  brethren  is  suggested  by  the 
striking  contrast  between  their  case — beloved  of  the  Lord — and 
those  godless  men  not   beloved ; — their  case  chosen  unto  salva- 


II.    THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.  II.  223 

tion,  and  those   upon  whom    "God  sends  strong  delusion:" 

their  case  saved  through  belief  of  the  truth  under  the  Hpirit's 
light;  and  the  case  of  those  who  received  not  the  love  of  the 
truth  so  that  God  could  save  them.  No  contrast  could  be  more 
complete,  more  wide,  and  practically  more  instructive.  There  is 
nothing  here  to  indicate  that  God  would  not  have  saved  the  first 
described  class  if  they  would  have  received  the  truth  in  love  ;  if 
they  would  have  believed  as  well  as  loved  it,  instead  of  having 
pleasure  in  unrighteousness.  But  how  could  he  save  men  who 
hated  light  and  would  not  come  to  it ;  who  loved  darkness  rather 
than  light  because  their  deeds  were  evil,  and  they  chose  evil 
before  good? 

How  the  divine  purpose  toward  the  saved  class  was  carried 
into  effect  is  fully  shown  here — viz.,  "through  sanctification  by 
the  Spirit  and  through  their  believing  the  truth" — unto  which 
sanctification  and  faith  God  had  called  them  by  the  preached 
gospel  to  the  end   of  their  obtaining    the   glorious    inheritance 

proffered  by  the  Lord. Therefore   let  them  stand  firm,   and 

hold  the  instructions — better  than  "  traditions,"  because  this  word 
has  been  so  much  used  in  the  Pharisaic  sense.  The  meaning  is 
— what  they  had  been  taught  by  the  apostles,  whether  orally  or 
by  letter.  This  exhortation  was  called  for — presumably — by  the 
erratic  tendencies  of  certain  enthusiasts  among  them  who  seem 
not  to  have  held  fast  the  words  of  Paul — at  least,  not  in  their  le- 
gitimate sense. 

16.  Now  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  himself,  and  God,  even 
our  Father,  which  hath  loved  us,  and  hath  given  us  ever- 
lasting consolation  and  good  hope  through  grace, 

17.  Comfort  your  hearts,  and  stablish  you  in  every  good 
word  and  work. 

This  prayer  is  pertinently  addressed  to  Christ  and  to  the 
Father  as  having  loved  them  and  given  them  everlasting  consola- 
tion. "Everlasting"  in  the  sense  of  perpetual,  unfailing,  life- 
long— yet  apparently  without  special  reference  to  the  future 
world.  Both  this  "  consolation  "  and  this  "  good  hope  "  may  have 
allusion  to  their  groundless  anxiety  and  sorrow  over  their  sainted 

dead,  referred  to  1  Thess.  4:  13-18. "  In  every  good  word  and 

work,"  with  some  emphasis  on  the  word  "good,"  in  contrast  with 
other  words  and  works  of  questionable  sort.  Only  in  the  good 
should  we  ever  expect  real  comfort,  or  pray  to  be  established. 


224  II.  THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.  III. 


CHAPTER   III. 

Requests  their  prayers  and  for  what  objects  (v.  1,2);  coupled 
with  expressions  of  confidence  (v.  3,  4);  and  his  own  prayers  for 
them  (v.  5);  injunctions  respecting  discipline  of  the  disorderly 
(v,  6) ;  enforced  by  reference  to  apostolic  example  (v.  7-9) ;  the 
point  of  disorder  being  neglect  of  useful  labor  (v.  10-12) ;  how 
to  treat  offenders  (v,  13-15)  with  closing  prayer  and  salutations 
(v.  16-18). 

1.  Finally,  brethren,  pray  for  us,  that  the  word  of  the 
Lord  may  have/?'ee  course,  and  be  glorified,  even  as  it  is  with 
you: 

2.  And  that  we  may  be  delivered  from  unreasonable  and 
wicked  men,  for  all  men  have  not  faith. 

The  brethren  addressed  would  readily  understand  this  allusion 
to  "  unreasonable  and  wicked  men,"  the  same  doubtless  who  fol- 
lowed Paul,  dogging  his  steps  from  Thessalonica  to  Berea  (Acts 
17  :  5-9,  13) ;  who  were  upon  him  again  in  Corinth  (Acts  18  :  12)  ; 
and  who  gave  him  no  rest  whenever  he  touched  Judea  (Acts  21 : 
27-31  and  Rom.  15:  31).  Very  unreasonable  men  were  those; 
never  "  pleasing  God  and  contrary  to  all  men"  (1  Thess.  2:  15). 
Paul  had  suffered  every  thing  short  of  death  at  their  bloody 
hands. 

3.  But  the  Lord  is  faithful,  who  shall  stablish  you,  and 
keep  you  from  evil. 

The  Lord  has  not  only  promised  freely  and  abundantly,  but  he 
is  faithful  to  his  promises — all  unlike  those  Godless  persecutors 

Avho  have  no  faith. "  Who  will  keep  you  from — not  evil  in  the 

abstract  but  the  Evil  One,  i.  e.,  the  devil."  So  this  clause  should 
obviously  be  translated.  The  proof  of  this  turns  on  usage  and 
on  the  context. 

It  may  bo  useful  to  classify  the  cases  of  New  Testament  usage 
in  which  this  adjective  ^'  meaning  evil,  is  used  in  the  singular 
with  the  article — the  Evil  One  or  the  evil  thing — as  the  gender 
may  be  either  masculine  or  neuter.  The  masculine  [the  Evil 
One]  is  certainly  Satan.  The  neuter  gender  denotes  evil  in  the 
a])stract. 

In  four  cases  the  article  is  certainly  masculine,  and  the  refer- 
ence is  therefore  to  Satan;  viz..  Matt.  13:  19.  "Then  cometh 
the  wicked  one  " — i.  e.,  Satan  : — also  1  John  2  :  13, 14 — "because 

ye  have  overcome  the  wicked  (me" — Satan.      So  v.  14. And 

1  John  5  :  18  :   "  lie  that  is  begotten  of  God  kecpcth  himself,  and 

that  wicked  one  (the  devil)  toucheth  him  not." Then  avc  find 

a  group  of  cases  in  which  the  gender  may  (as  to  form)  be  cither 
■■'•  novipoa. 


II.    THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.    III.  225 

masculine  or  neuter,  leaving  the  question  of  allusion  to  Satan 
open,  to  be  determined  by  the  nature  of  the  case.  On  this  prin- 
ciple, the  following  passages  should  be  translated — the  devil — 
viz.,  Matt.  5:  37:  "Let  your  communication  be  yea,  yea;  nay, 
nay : — for  whatsoever  is  more  than  these  [in  the  direction  of  the 
profane  oath]  cometh  of  the  devil."  Matt.  6:  13 — "Lead  us  not 
into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  the  devil."  Matt.  13  :  38 — 
"  The  tares  are  the  children  of  the  devil."  John  17:  15 — "I  pray 
not  that  thou  shouldest  take  them  out  of  the  world,  but  that  thou 
shouldest  keep  them  from  the  devil."  John  3 :  12 — "  Not  as  Cain 
who  was  of  the  devil  and  slew  his  brother."  Add  the  passage  now 
before  us. 

Over  against  this  group  is  another — a  very  small  one  where  the 
context  forbids  an  allusion  to  the  devil: — viz..  Matt,  5:  39  where 
we  must  not  read — "  I  say  unto  you  that  ye  resist  not  the  devil ;  " 
and  1  Cor.  5:13  where  "  put  away  from  yourselves  that  wicked 
person,"  can  not  be  Satan  but  must  be  the  man  guilty  of  incest. 
This  classification  shows  a  great  preponderance  of  cases  in  which 
this  word  for  "  evil "  must  refer  to  the  evil  one,  Satan,  beyond 
all  reasonable  question. 

4.  And  we  have  confidence  in  the  Lord  touching  you,  that 
ye  both  do  and  will  do  the  things  av hich  we  command  you. 

5.  And  the  Lord  direct  your  hearts  into  the  love  of  God, 
and  into  the  patient  waiting  for  Christ. 

"Direct  your  heart" — this  word  representing  the  moral  will- 
power— into  or  unto  the  loving  of  God  : — and  into  the  patience  of 
Christ,  this  being  the  meaning  of  Paul's  word,  and  not  a  patient 
waiting  for  Christ.  The  words  of  Paul  mean  a  patience  under 
suflFering  like  that  of  Jesus  himself. 

6.  Now  we  command  you,  brethren,  in  the  name  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  ye  withdraw  yourselves  from  every 
brother  that  walketh  disorderly,  and  not  after  the  tradition 
which  he  received  of  us. 

Notice  that  this  is  not  advice  but  "  command  "  and  enforced  by 
the  name — ?'.  e.,  the  authority  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  This  disorderly 
walking  is  shown  by  the  context  to  be  the  neglect  of  useful  labor 
— not  working  at  all  upon  any  thing  useful,  but  being  "busy- 
bodies" — active  enough,  but  active  upon  nothing  of  value  toward 
subsistence  or  the  improvement  of  society.  Of  course  these  men 
must  needs  eat  like  other  people  ;  and  therefore  throw  themselves 
upon  the  unrequited  labor  of  men  of  more  sober  mind  and  better 
life. From  such  men  Paul  commands  the  brethren  to  with- 
draw their  Christian  fellowship. 

7.  For  yourselves  know  how  ye  ought  to  follow  us :  for 
we  behaved  not  ourselves  disorderly  among  you  ; 

8.  Neither  did  we  eat  any  man's  bread  for  nought;  but 


226  II.  THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.    III. 

wrought  with   labor  and  travail  night  and  day,  that  we 
might  not  be  chargeable  to  any  of  you  : 

9.  Not  because  we  have  not  power,  but  to  make  ourselves 
an  ensample  unto  you  to  follow  us. 

The  example  of  Paul  and  his  fellow-lahorers  had  in  this  respect 
been  one  of  patient  industry  and  mainly  one  of  self-support. 
Paul  recognized  fully  his  right  as  an  apostle  and  as  a  preacher  of 
the  gospel  to  be  supported  by  the  people  whom  his  labors  had  so 
richly  blessed.  He  is  now  writing  from  Corinth  where  he  lived 
with  Aquila  and  Priscilla  and  wrought  with  them  in  the  manu- 
facture of  tents  (Acts  18  :  1-3),  and  where  he  had  occasion  to 
discuss  the  principles  now  in  hand  and  to  put  forth  his  reasons 
for  waiving  h^^s  rights  as  a  minister,  and  throwing  himself  upon 
his  personal  toil  for  his  living.  (=See  1  Cor.  9  and  2  Cor.  11:  7- 
12  and  12:  13-18.) 

10.  For  even  when  we  were  with  you,  this  we  commanded 
you,  that  if  any  would  not  work,  neither  should  he  eat. 

11.  For  we  hear  that  there  are  some  which  walk  among 
you  disorderly,  working  not  at  all,  but  are  busybodies. 

12.  Now  them  that  are  such  we  command  and  exhort  by 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  with  quietness  they  work,  and  eat 
their  own  bread. 

Useful  labor  is  never  a  curse  to  society,  but  always  a  blessing. 
Those  wild  enthusiasts  who  assume  that  their  enthusiasm  exempts 
them  from  self-support,  and  entitles  them  to  live  upon  the  toil  of 
others,  violate  the  law  of  love  egregiously,  and  what  is  perhaps 
worst  of  all — aggravate  that  very  wildness  of  enthusiasm  which 
is  at  once  their  calamity  and  their  crime.  Useful  labor  conduces 
toward  the  even  balance  of  the  mind  and  the  controlling  power 
of  good  sense. 

It  should  not  be  overlooked  that  this  case  of  disorderly  walk- 
ing at  Thessalonica  was  due  to  the  abuse  and  perversion  of  the 
doctrine  of  Christ's  coming.  It  therefore  shows  that  God  never 
intended  the  nearness  of  that  coming  (wdiether  real  or  only  sup- 
posed) should  be  so  held  as  to  exempt  men  from  honest  labor  for 
an  honest  living.  The  common  duties  of  life  are  never  to  bo 
ne;.dectcd  or  even  disturbed  by  the  prophetic  appointments  of 
men  for  the  coming  of  that  day. 

13.  But  ye,  brethren,  be  not  weary  in  well  doing. 

14.  And  if  any  man  obey  not  our  word  by  this  epistle, 
note  that  man,  and  have  no  company  with  him,  that  he  may 
be  ashamed. 

15.  Yet  count  him  not  as  an  enemy,  but  admonish  /limas 
a  brother. 

Withdraw  socially  from  that  disorderly  brother;  let  him   feel 


II.  THESSALONIANS. — CHAP.    III.  227 

that  he  has  no  moral  support  from  his  brethren.  This  may  take 
the  pride  out  of  him  and  put  him  upon  sober  reflection.  Yet 
treat  him  not  as  an  enemy,  but  rather  admonish  him  as  still  a 
brother  whose  welfare  you  seek,  whose  soul  you  love,  and  whom 
you  would  reclaim  and  save.  The  spirit  of  these  precepts  is  most 
admirable — so  truly  Christ-like ;  so  well  adapted  to  save,  so  pro- 
foundly wise. 

16.  Now  the  Lord  of  peace  himself  give  you  peace  always 
by  all  means.     The  Lord  he  with  you  all. 

17.  The  salutation  of  Paul  with  mine  own  hand,  which  is 
the  token  in  every  epistle :  so  I  write. 

18.  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  he  with  you  all. 
Amen. 

"  The  Lord  of  peace  "  is  none  other  than  he  who  said  most 
sweetly  to  his  disciples: — "Peace  I  leave  with  you;  my  peace  I 
give  unto  you"  (John  14:  27).  It  was  morally  beautiful  in  Paul 
to  commend  his  brethren  to  this  Great  Giver  of  peace  for  those 
blessings  of  peace  which  the  exercise  of  wholesome  discipline 
might  put  in  jeopardy. 

This  calling  of  special  attention  to  his  autograph  signature 
(v.  17)  to  certify  his  letters,  suggests  that  some  special  occasion 
existed  in  that  church.  That  in  the  presence  of  such  occasion 
and  of  so  many  circumstances  adapted  to  disturb  Paul's  equa- 
nimity, try  his  temper  and  provoke  an  unloving  spirit,  he  should 
yet  evince  such  sweetness,  gentleness,  patience,  self-control  and 
rich  Christian  charity,  is  indeed  an  example  at  once  delightful 
and  morally  sublime. 


THE  FIRST  EPISTLE  TO  TIMOTHY. 


INTRODUCTION. 

The  points  appropriate  to  an  introduction  bearing  in  gen- 
eral upon  the  three  pastoral  epistles  (Timothy  I.  and  II.  and 
Titus)  but  in  particular  upon  I.  Timothy  are : 

I.   The  personal  history  of  Timothy ; 
II.  Authorship  of  these  epistles ; 

III.  Date,  including  all  three; 

IV.  The  occasion  and  scope  of  the  epistle  now  in  hand. 

I.  Timothy  was  apparently  of  Lystra,  a  city  of  Lycaonia. 
His  father  was  a  Greek ;  his  mother  a  Jewess,  Eunice  by 
name,  first  brought  to  view  in  Scripture  history  (Acts  16: 
1-3).  Inasmuch  as  at  this  point  he  was  already  a  disciple 
of  well-established  reputation,  it  is  highly  probable  that  he 
was  converted  under  Paul's  labors  during  his  first  visit  to 
this  place  (Acts  14:  6).  Taken  now  by  Paul  (Acts  16:  1- 
5)  as  his  assistant  and  fellow -laborer,  he  seems  to  have  been 
with  him  at  Thessalonica ;  driven  out  with  him  to  Berea; 
left  there  with  Silas  (Acts  17 :  14)  while  Paul  went  on  to 
Athens ;  probably  rejoining  him  there  (Acts  17 :  16)  and 
sent  from  that  city  to  Thessalonica  (1  Thess.  3:1,  2),— re- 
turning to  the  apostle  however  to  find  him  at  Corinth  (Acts 
18:  5).  He  appears  next  with  Paul  at  Ephesus  on  his 
third  great  missionary  tour;  was  sent  forward  thence  into 
Macedonia  (Acts  19:  22)  and  also  to  Corinth  (1  Cor.  4:  17); 
was  with  Paul  in  INIacedonia  when  he  wrote  2  Corinthians 
(1 :  1),  and  at  Corinth  when  he  wrote  thence  to  the  Ro- 
mans (Rf)m.  16:  21);  accompanied  him  from  Corinth  into 
Asia  on  his  way  to  Jerusalem  (Acts  20:  4);  is  with  him 
again  during  his  two  years'  confinement  at  Rome  as  appears 
from  the  letters  written  there  to  the  Philippians  (1 :  1), 
Colossians  (1 :  1)  and  Philemon  (v.  1). 

At  a  point  considerably  later,  lie  aj^pcars  in  this  epistle 
of  Paul   to  himself,  left  at  Ephesus  when  Paul  went  into 

C228) 


INTRODUCTION.  229 

Macedonia,  yet  sent  for  to  come  to  Paul  near  the  close  of 

his  second  epistle  and  of  his  life. It  thus  appears  that  his 

associations  with  Paul  spanned  from  first  to  last  a  period  of 
seventeen  years  (A.  D.  51-68),  in  which  though  not  con- 
stantly with  him,  he  was  yet  serving  with  him  in  the  gos- 
pel, intrusted  often  with  special  missions,  enjoying  his  full- 
est confidence,  and  being  at  least  among  his  most  valued 

and  most  useful  fellow -laborers. Eusebius  (H.  E.  3:  4) 

speaks  of  him  as  first  bishop  of  Ephesus.  He  is  said  to 
have  suffered  martyrdom  under  Diocletian. 

n.  I  see  no  objection  of  any  force  whatever  against  the 
authorship  of  Paul.  Certain  hypercritics  have  said  that 
these  letters  are  very  unlike  Paul's  other  letters,  i.  e.,  to 
churches — in  the  points  of  logical  connection  of  parts — these 
being  very  miscellaneous  in  subject,  while  those  are  logically 
constructed ;  these  evincing  none  of  that  remarkable  depth 
of  thought  which  characterize  those — entering  into  no  great 
discussion  (as  those  do)  of  fundamental  gospel  truth: — in 
short  that  they  have  a  very  diflferent  air,  and  therefore  in- 
dicate a  different  author. All  this  criticism  strangely  ig- 
nores the  diflference  between  writing  to  churches,  as  yet 
crude  on  the  great  themes  of  gospel  doctrine,  and  writing 
to  a  brother  minister,  for  seventeen  years  associated  with 
himself  in  gospel  study  and  teaching — a  fellow-laborer  ma- 
ture in  Christian  character  and  also  in  Christian  doctrine. 

Besides,  Paul  is  older  now  than  he  was  when  he  was 

writing  epistles  to  the  churches.  The  experiences  of  twenty 
or  more  years  of  missionary  travel  and  toil,  with  scourgings, 
fistings,  shipwreck,  imprisonment,  cares  that  never  ceased; 
heart-burdens,  perplexities,  anxieties,  perhaps  never  borne 
to  such  an  extent  by  any  other  man — may  have  left  traces 
of  wear  upon  his  physical  frame,  sufficient  to  excuse  him 
from  profound,  elaborate  theological  discussion,  especially 
when  not  called  for.  It  were  a  mere  impertinence  to  object 
to  the  genuineness  of  these  pastoral  epistles  that  they  con- 
tain only  those  points  of  instruction  and  counsel  which  cir- 
cumstances made  necessary  and  do  not  repeat  the  theological 
discussions  which  were  in  place  in  the  epistles  to  the  Ko- 
mans  and  also  to  the  Galatians  and  to  the  Ephesians.  It  is 
noticeable  that  Paul  has  not  lost  his  common  sense,  however 
it  may  be  with  his  critics. 

III.  The  question  of  date  involves  the  broader  question 
respecting  the  main  historic  facts  of  the  last  five  or  six  years 
of  Paul's  life,  intervening  between  his  release  from  his  first 


230  INTEODUCTION. 

imprisonment  (about  A.  D.  62)  and  his  death  which  closed 
his  second — siipposably  in  the  spring  of  A.  D.  68. 

Luke's  narrative  ends  (Acts  28),  with  the  two  years  of 
Paul's  first  imprisonment  at  Rome. 

The  data  for  making  up  Paul's  personal  history  during 
these  six  last  years  of  his  life  are  : 

(a.)  Certain  notices  of  his  purposes — which  are  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  confirmed  by  testimony  from  the  Christian 
fathers : 

(6.)  Sundry  allusions  in  these  pastoral  epistles  to  locali- 
ties in  Avhich  he  is  seen,  and  also  to  the  doctrinal  errors  then 
prevalent  in  these  churches. 

(c.)  Testimonies  from  the  Christian  fathers. 

Giving  a  few  moments  to  these  sources  of  testimony, 
under  (a.)  we  have  an  expressed  purpose  (Rom.  15 :  24,  28) 
to  visit  Spain.  This  purpose  does  not  of  itself  prove  that 
he  actually  went,  but  it  renders  this  visit  probable.  The 
fact  is  put  beyond  reasonable  doubt  by  the  testimony  of  sev- 
eral of  the  earliest  Christian  fathers.     (See  Smithes  Bible 

Dictionary,  under  "  Paul,"  pp.  2394,2395). Moreover, 

in  his  letter  to  the  Philippians,  written  during  his  first  im- 
prisonment at  Rome,  he  twice  expresses  great  assurance  in 
the  Lord  that  he  should  yet  and  ere  long  revisit  them:  *'I 
know  that  I  shall  abide  (in  the  flesh)  and  continue  with  you 
all"  (1:  24) ;  ''  I  trust  in  the  Lord  that  I  also  myself  shall 
come  shortly"  (2:  25).  There  is  at  least  a  strong  a  iwiori 
piiobability  that  these  expectations  were  realized. A  sim- 
ilar expectation  of  visiting  Colosse,  the  residence  of  Phil- 
emon, appears  in  Philemon  (v.  22). 

(b.)  Under  this  head  the  argument  is  that  somewhat 
numerous  allusions  in  these  pastoral  epistles  presuppose  jour- 
neys made  by  Paul  and  residences  more  or  less  protracted  at 
various  places,  for  which  no  room  can  be  made  during  his 
known  life,  antecedent  to  his  first  imprisonment,  and  which 
sufiice  to  fill  up  the  years  quite  well  known  to  have  inter- 
vened between  his  release  from  his  first  imprisonment  and 

his  death  which  terminated    his   second. Thus  he   had 

been  at  Ephesus  in  connection  with  Timothy  and  left  him 
there  to  go  himself  to  Macedonia  (1  Tim.  1 :  3).  He  pur- 
posed to  return  to  Ephesus  again  (1  Tim.  4 :  13).  He  had 
spent  considerable  time  there,  enjoying  the  friendly  minis- 
trations of  Onesiphorus  (2  Tim.    1:   16). His  letter   to 

Titus,  written  near  the  date  of  1  Timothy  shows  that  he  had 
been  to  Crete  and  had  left  Titus  there.     He  speaks  in  this 


INTEODUCTION.  231 

letter  of  a  purpose  to  spend  the  winter  at  Nicopolis  (Titus 
3:  12).  His  second  to  Timothy  shows  that  he  had  left 
Erastus  at  Corinth  (of  course  had  been  there  himself) ;  at 
Miletum  also,  where  he  left  Trophimus  sick ;  at  Troas  where 
he  left  what  is  called  a  "cloak"  and  also  "  the  books  and  the 
parchments." As  to  the  circumstances  of  his  imprison- 
ment, it  appears  that  he  was  in  bonds  as  a  malefactor  (2 
Tim.  2 :  9),  very  unlike  the  circumstances  of  his  first  im- 
prisonment, in  which  some  respect  was  shown  him  as  a 
Roman  citizen,  against  whom,  moreover,  no  grave  charges 
had  been  brought.  ALso  that  in  his  first  hearing  before  the 
Roman  authorities  (supposably  before  Nero)  the  Lord  stood 
by  him  for  his  strength,  though  all  men  forsook  him ;  so  that 
his  hopes  revived  of  yet  preaching  the  gospel  more  fully  ; 
and  he   "was   delivered  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  lion"  (2 

Tim.  4:  16-18). All  these  circumstances  presuppose  the 

lapse  of  considerable  periods  of  time  and  the  occurrence  of 
events  too  many  and  too  large  historically  to  find  place  in 
his  life-history  before  his  first  imprisonment ; — which  assume 
an  interval  of  some  years  between  his  first  imprisonment  and 
his  second ;  and  which  represent  the  second  to  have  been 
widely  unlike  the  first. 

To  this  should  be  added  the  much  more  full  development 
of  incipient  heresies,  especially  at  Ephesus.  He  foresaw 
these  developments  when  he  met  those  elders  at  Miletus 
(Acts  20:  29,  30):  "For  I  know  that  after  my  departure 
shall  grievous  wolves  enter  in  among  you,"  etc.  At  the 
date  of  his  first  letter  to  Timothy,  these  prophetic  fore- 
castings  had  become  but  too  palpable  facts :  "  I  besought  thee 
to  remain  still  at  Ephesus  that  thou  mightest  charge  some 
that  they  teach  no  other  doctrine."  These  circumstances  in- 
dicate a  considerable  lapse  of  time. 

(c.)  The  testimonies  of  early  church  historians  bear  specially 
upon  these  two  points:  (1)  Of  his  preaching  in  Spain  to 
which  reference  is  made  above ;  and  (2)  To  the  circum- 
stances of  his  death.  The  latter  are  given  in  Smith's  Bible 
Dictionary,  pp.  2399 : — in  substance,  from  Clement  of  Rome, 
supposed  to  have  been  once  with  Paul  (PhiL  4:  3);  from 
Dionysius,  bishop  of  Corinth  (A.  D.  170);  from  Cains  of 
Rome  of  the  second  century;  and  from  Tertullian  (A.  D. 
200) : — all  to  the  effect  that  Paul  was  beheaded  under  Nero, 
in  the  spring  of  A.  D.68,  near  the  timcAvhen  Peter  suffered 
martyrdom,  and  not  long  before  Nero's  own  death.  These 
points  stand  among  the  undisputed  facts  of  early  church 


232  INTRODUCTION. 

history. Conybeare  and  Howson,  in  appendix  to  Vol.  II., 

discuss  fully  the  questions  of  the  genuineness  and  date  of 
these  epistles. 

IV.  The  occasion  and  scope  of  these  epistles  are  obvious. 
Primarily  instructing  Timothy  to  head  off  incipient  heresies, 
but  secondly  and  in  general,  to  supervise  church  work ;  to 
induct  into  office  suitable  pastors  and  deacons ;  to  promote 
sound  morality  and  intrinsic  righteousness;  to  build  up  the 

brethren  in  their  most  holy  faith. That  these   epistles 

should  take  up  and  treat  these  various  themes  miscellane- 
ously is  in  every  point  of  view  legitimate  and  to  be  expected. 
They  affi^rd  us  an  admirable  exemplification  of  Paul's  ideal 
of  the  Christian  church,  showing  what  he  labored  to  make 
them — lights  in  the  world,  holding  forth  the  light  of  a  pure 
morality,  and  of  an  efficient  and  glorious  Christianity.  He 
believed  in  church  organization  and  church  authority,  not 
as  an  end  in  itself,  but  as  a  necessary  means  to  this  one 
supreme  end — a  pure  Christian  life. 


THE  FIRST  EPISTLE  TO  TIMOTHY. 


CHAPTER    I. 


Introductory  greetings  (v.  1,2);  reasons  for  leaving  Timothy 
at  Ephesus  (v.  3,  4)  which  suggests  that  the  true  end  and  aim  of 
the  law  is  love  (v.  5) ;  how  some  have  misconceived  this,  and  the 
consequences  (v.  6,  7) ;  for  what  class  4)f  sinners  law  is  enacted 
(v.  8-11).  The  great  grace  of  God  in  Paul's  conversion  and  call 
to  the  ministry  (12-14)  and  the  moral  lessons  of  this  wonderful 
conversion  (v.  15-17) ;  on  Timothy's  call  to  the  ministry,  with 
Christian  counsels  (v.  18-20). 

1.  Paul,  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  by  the  commandment 
of  God  our  Savior,  and  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  ivhich  is  our 
hope ; 

2.  Unto  Timothy,  my  own  son  in  the  faith  :  Grace,  mercy, 
and  peace,  from  God  our  Father,  and  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord. 

That  Paul  writing  to  Timothy  should  introduce  himself  as  "  an 
apostle"  was  not  due  to  any  sense  of  the  need  of  asserting  his 
authority  for  Timothy's  sake,  but  to  the  official  character  of  the 
letter.  It  was  appropriate  for  an  apostle  to  assign  Christian 
work  to  his  associated  laborers. Paul  held  his  apostolic  com- 
mission by  special  appointment  of  God  and  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
our  Supreme  Hope — the  ultimate  ground  of  it  all.  It  is  not 
usual  to  speak  of  God  as  "  our  Savior,"  yet  there  are  cases  other 
than  this.     Its  pertinence  lies  in  the  fact  that  "God  so  loved  the 

world  as  to  give  us  Jesus  his  Son." "Unto  Timothy,  my  own 

son" — literally  and  primarily,  "  my  born  son,"  my  son  by  birth; 
but  in  the  secondary  sense,  my  real  son — one  whose  filial  rela- 
tions are  genuine,  unquestionable.  In  this  case,  "my  son  in  the 
faith,"  i.  e.,  in  the  sphere  of  Christian  belief  and  life — my 
spiritual  child,  begotten  of  God  unto  holiness  through  my  in- 
strumentality. 

3.  As  I  besought  thee  to  abide  still  at  Ephesus,  when  I 
went  into  Macedonia,  that  thou  niightest  charge  some  that 
they  teach  no  other  doctrine, 

(233) 


234  I.   TIMOTHY. — CHAP.   I. 

4.  Neither  give  heed  to  fables  and  endless  genealogies, 
which  minister  questions,  rather  than  godly  edifying  which 
is  in  faith :  so  do. 

These  circumstances  have  been  sufficiently  treated  in  the  intro- 
duction,  "  That  they  teach  no  other  doctrine  whatsoever;  "  for 

the  gospel  doctrine  is  of  necessity  exclusive  of  every  other.     Its 

nature  forbids  any  partnership  w^ith   other  systems. "Fables 

and  endless  genealogies" — are  unquestionably  of  Jewish  type,  as 
may  be  seen  in  the  more  full  description  (Titus  1  :  14  and  3  :  9) 
where  Paul  calls  them  "  Jewish  fables ;  "  also  foolish  questions 
and  genealogies  and  strivings  about  the  law.  Even  a  very  slight 
acquaintance  with  the  Talmud  will  abundantly  justify  these  de- 
scriptive points  of  Jewish  teaching  in  that  age — surprisingly 
frivolous  and  even  silly,  ministering  questions  in  plenty — any 
thing  rather  than  edifying  men  in  that  godliness  which  is  through 
faith.  The  gospel  scheme  and  the  scheme  of  effete  Judaism 
were  on  all  these  vital  points,  "  wide  as  the  poles  apart." Re- 
markably the  Greek  word  for  "edifying"  (oikonomia) — a  word 
which  suggests  household  economy — looks  rather  to  the  edification 
of  the  church  than  of  individuals.  Paul  would  suggest  that  effete 
Judaism  supplied  but  miserable  elements  for  building  up  the 
church  of  God  in  his  most  holy  faith.  It  is  an  easy  inference 
that  what  is  worthless  for  the  church  can  have  no  value  for  the 
individual  Christian. 

5.  Now  the  end  of  the  commandment  is  charity  out  of  a 
pure  heart,  and  of  a  good  conscience,  and  of  faith  unfeigned : 

These  men  make  great  account  of  the  law — i.  e.,  as  given  by 
Moses.  But  to  understand  the  value  of  the  law  and  so  of  any 
teaching  of  it,  you  must  consider  well  its  ultimate  end  and  aim — 
what  the  law  seeks  to  accomplish.     To  this  point,  therefore,  Paul 

wisely  turns. The  first  word  of  v.  5  should  not  be  "  now,"  for 

it  signifies  neither  time  nor  logical  relation,  in  the  sense  of  con- 
sequently, but  is  slightly  adversative  ["de"] — best  expressed  by 
"bilt."  Bat,  all  unlike  the  Jewish  system  as  taught  by  them,  the 
commandment  has  for  its  true  end,  not  questions  and  endless  gen- 
ealogies to  no  useful  edifying,  but  real  love.  "Charity,"  of  course 
in  the  broad  sense  (now  mostly  obsolete)  of  real  love,  good  will  to 
men.  To  identify  and  more  fully  describe  this  love,  Paul  says  it 
is  the  natural  product  of  a  pure  (unselfish)  heart — a  good  (not  a 
misguided,  untaught,  but  a  well-informed  and  honest)  conscience; 
and  of  faith,  not  pretentious  and  Pharisaical,  but  unfeigned  and 
sincere. 

6.  From  which  some  having  swerved  have  turned  aside 
unto  vain  jangling; 

7.  Desiring  to  be  teachers  of  the  law ;  understanding 
neither  what  they  say,  nor  whereof  they  affirm. 


I.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  I.  235 

Paul's  word  for  "swerved"  implies  missing  the  mark,  losing 
sight  of  their  pole-star,  turning  aside  from  the  right  way  [of  love] 
into  vain,  profitless  jangling,  disputations  that  contribute  nothing 
toward  love,  but  much  toward  discord  and  ill  temper.  Notice- 
ably, Paul's  word  assumes  also  that  they  are  voluntary  and  there- 
fore culpable,  and  not  merely  unfortunate  in  this  sAverving. 

Ambitious  to  be  distinguished  and  honored  as  "lawyers"  in  the 
New  Testament  sense — "  doctors  of  the  law;"  but  wholly  without 
qualifications,  for  they  understand  neither  ivliat  the  law  affirms 
nor  why. 

8.  But  we  know  that  the  law  is  good,  if  a  man  use  it  law- 
fully; 

9.  Knowing  this,  that  the  law  is  not  made  for  a  righteous 
man,  but  for  the  lawless  and  disobedient,  for  the  ungodly 
and  for  sinners,  for  unholy  and  profane,  for  murderers  of 
fathers  and  murderers  of  mothers,  for  manslayers, 

10.  For  whoremongers,  for  them  that  defile  themselves 
with  mankind,  for  men-stealers,  for  liars,  for  perjured  per- 
sons, and  if  there  be  any  other  thing  that  is  contrary  to 
sound  doctrine ; 

11.  According  to  the  glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed  God, 
which  was  committed  to  my  trust. 

We  all  know,  every  one  must  admit,  that  the  law — that  given 
by  Moses,  which  is  certainly  spoken  of  here — is  intrinsically  good 
and  will  be  of  service  if  used  legitimately  according  to  its  design. 
Whatever  criticism  Paul  ever  had  to  make  upon  the  abuses  of 
that  law,  he  always  admitted  its  inherent  goodness  and  its  utility 
toward  the  ends  which  itself  contemplated.  "The  law  is  holy, 
and  the  commandment  holy  and  just  and  good.  We  know  that 
the  law  is  spiritual ;  but  I  am  carnal.  I  consent  unto  the  law 
that  it  is  good."  (Kom.  7:  12,  14,  16.)  But  to  understand  what 
"using  it  lawfully"  means,  we  must  consider  ["  knowing  this"] 
that  this  law  is  not  enacted  for  the  special  benefit  of  the  righteous 
man,  but  for  the  benefit  of  sinners,  whom  he  proceeds  to  classify 
and  enumerate.  Paul  means  to  show  that  the  law  was  designed 
to  be  a  schoolmaster  to  lead  men  to  Christ — a  rule  of  life  that 
should  avail  to  convict  men  of  sin,  enforcing  upon  their  souls  a 
sense  of  their  need  of  forgiveness.  Its  manifold  specification  of 
offenses  would  have  been  quite  needless  if  all  men  had  been 
righteous.  In  this  sense  it  was  enacted  for  these  and  similar  sin- 
ners.  Moreover,  it  was  not  enacted  for  the  righteous  man  as  a 

rule  of  life,  by  following  which  he  might  insure  God's  favor  and 
gain  heaven  as  his  reward.  Whether  such  obedience,  if  perfect, 
would  have  resulted  in  the  reward  of  heaven,  is  not,  as  to  our 
fallen  race,  a  practical  question.  It  was  not  needful,  thereforCj 
for  Paul  to  discuss  it.  As  to  righteousness  in  the  Pharisaic  sense, 
he  had  not  the  least  faith  that,  however  punctilious,  however  in- 


236  I.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.    I. 

tense,  it  could  at  all  fit  men  for  heaven. Passinj^  this  point,  we 

have  the  momentous  truth  that  the  law  is  good  as  a  rule  of  moral 
conduct;  good  to  convict  men  of  their  sins;  good  to  enforce  a 
sense  of  personal  need  of  Christ,  but  not  good  as  a  means  of  per- 
sonal salvation,  and  most  of  all  powerless  when  interpreted  in  the 
Pharisaic  sense. 

These  specifications  of  godless  character  and  of  godless  men 
need  little  comment. — Of  the  "lawless  and  refractory,"  the  former 
are  the  more  passive;  the  latter  the  more  active:  the  former  re- 
gardless of  law ;  the  latter  restive  and  rebellious  under  it.  Of 
"  the  ungodly  and  sinners,"  the  former  are  unworshipful,  having 
no  reverence  for  God  and  no  proclivity  toward  worship,  while  the 
latter  are  in  their  whole  character  offenders,  violators  of  law.  As 
to  "the  unholy  and  the  profane,"  the  former  lack  conformity  to 
God,  while  the  latter  lack  even  the  common  impulses  of  our  better 
humanity. 

•  "  Murderers  of  fathers  and  of  mothers"  should  rather  have  been 
translated  "  strikers,''  this  being  what  the  etymology  of  the  word 
calls  for,  from  the  verb  to  thresh,  to  smite.  Paul  refers  to  the 
law  of  Moses  (Ex.  21 :  15) :  "  He  that  smiteth  his  father  or  his 
mother  shall  surely  be  put  to  death."  The  crime  of  parricide  is 
rare.  Extreme  disrespect,  overt  abuse  of  parents,  is  the  sin  re- 
ferred to. "  Men-stealers,"  kidnapers  of  their  fellow-men  into 

slavery,  was  one  class  of  criminals  condemned  by  the  law  of 
Moses.  "  He  that  stealeth  a  man  and  selleth  him,  or  if  he  be 
found  in  his  hand,  shall  surely  be  put  to  death"  (Ex.  21:  16). 

After   many  specifications,  Paul  says  comprehensively:    If 

there  be  any  thing  else  contrary  to  sound  doctrine  as  revealed  in 
that  gospel  which  sets  forth  the  glorious  purity  and  love  of  the 
blessed  God,  the  law  condemns  that.  This  is  the  gospel  commit- 
ted to  my  trust  as  an  apostle  and  a  divinely  commissioned  teacher 
of  most  precious  truth. 

12.  And  I  thank  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  who  hath  enabled 
me,  for  that  he  counted  me  faithful,  putting  me  into  the 
ministry ; 

13.  Who  was  before  a  blasphemer,  and  a  persecutor,  and 
injurious:  but  I  obtained  mercy,  because  I  did  it  ignorantly 
in  unbelief. 

14.  And  the  grace  of  our  Lord  was  exceeding  abundant 
Avith  faith  and  love  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 

The  thought  of  his  gospel  trust  fires  the  soul  of  this  aged  apos- 
tle, who  will  never  be  too  old  to  kindle  under  its  inspirations. 
O  what  thanks  and  praises  do  I  owe  and  would  I  render  for  ever 
to  Jesus  my  Ijord  who  hath  clothed  me  with  spiritual  power  [the 
sense  of  the  word  for  "enabled"] — hatli  empowered  me  by  the 
energies  of  his  Spirit,  because  he  accounted  me  faithful,  and  so  put 
me  into  this  gospel  ministry,  even  me  who  previously  had  been  a 
Ijlasphemer  {i.  c,  against  the  name  of  Christ),  even  compelling 


I.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  I.  237 

his  disciples  to  blaspheme  (Acts  26:  9,  11). — "And  injurious," 
the  Greek  word^  combining  the  ideas  of  insolence  and  wanton 
injury ;  the  spirit  of  one  regardless  of  the  feelings,  welfare,  and 
rights  of  his  fellow-men.     Paul  has  no  soft  apologetic  words  for 

his  godless,  Pharisaic  life. But  I  who  had  shown  no  mercy  to 

others  did  yet  (strange  to  say!)  find  mercy  myself;  though  this 
may  be  said :  I  never  should  but  for  the  circumstance  that  I 
sinned  ignorantly,  in  unbelief.  I  did  not  then  believe  that  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  was  the  Messiah  promised  to  our  nation. 

We  need  not  suppose  that  Paul  held  himself  guiltless  for  this 
unbelief;  but  only  that  it  somewhat  lessened  his  guilt.  If  he  had 
sinned  against  greater  light,  his  guilt  would  have  been  correspond- 
ingly greater;  and  if  much  greater,  might  have  shut  him  oflF  from 
mercy  for  ever, 

God's  "grace  was  exceedingly  abundant" — abounded  and  su- 
perabounded — one  of  Paul's  very  expressive  words,  which  yet 
seems  to  labor  almost  in  vain  to  utter  the  fullness  of  his  over- 
flowing soul, 

15.  This  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of  all  accepta- 
tion, that  Jesus  Christ  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners; 
of  whom  I  am  chief. 

16.  Howbeit  for  this  cause  I  obtained  mercy,  that  in  me 
first  Christ  Jesus  might  show  forth  all  long-suffering,  for  a 
pattern  to  them  which  should  hereafter  believe  on  him  to  life 
everlasting. 

17.  Now  unto  the  King  eternal,  immortal,  invisible,  the 
only  wise  God,  be  honor  and  glory  for  ever  and  ever.    Amen. 

Paul  passes  by  easy  transition  from  the  particular,  his  own 
case,  to  the  general — the  great,  the  comprehensive,  and  most 
blessed  truth,  that  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners. 

This  is  "a  faithful  word" — a  phrase  used  by  Paul  only;  and 
remarkably,  only  in  these  pastoral  epistles.  This  fact  suggests 
that  the  phrase  may  have  become  crystallized  into  his  style  with 
the  lapse  of  time.  It  appears  in  1  Tim.  3:  1  and  4:  9,  and  2 
Tim.  2:  11  and  Tit.  3:  8. 

"Worthy  of  all  acceptation  " — by  every  man,  everywhere,  over 

all  the  world,  and  onward  through  all  the  ages. "Of  whom  I 

am  chief" — in  the  front  rank,  first  and  foremost;    for  who  has 

ever  sinned  more  or  worse  than  I  ? Yet  this  was  one  reason 

W'hy  1  obtained  mercy,  viz.,  that  in  me — not  "  first"  in  time,  but 
in  me  chiefly — in  me  as  a  most  signal,  illustrious  example,  Christ 
might  show  forth  all  his  long-suffering  mercy — the  whole  of  it — 
making  a  richer  display  than  could  be  possible  toward  a  sinner 

of  less  guilt. The  translation  "first"  ["that  in  me  first"]  is 

unfortunate  and  quite  inaccurate,  the  Greek  word  being  the  same 
he  had  used  shortly  before  for  "  chief"  ["  of  whom  I  am  chief  ]. 
The  sense  in  each  case  is  pre-eminent.  Paul  says — as  a  sinner  I 
was  pre-eminent,  towering  above  all  others ;  and  in  me  pre-emi- 
11 


238  I.   TIMOTHY. — CHAP.    I. 

nently — as  a  most  signal  example — Jesus  Christ  showed  forth  his 
supreme,  unutterable  long-suffering,  for  a  model — an  illustration 
— of  his  mercy  to  all  who  might  seek  mercy  ever  after. 

What  could  be  more  fitting  here  than  this  outgushing  doxol- 

ogy ! The  word  "  wise  "  [the   only  ivise  God]   is   by  the   full 

consent  of  all  critics,  removed  from  the  text  as  without  authority. 
It  is  objectionable  because  open  to  the  supposition  of  another 
God  not  wise,  this  being  the  only  God  who  is  wise  yet  not  abso- 
lutely the  only  God.     The  latter  was  Paul's  meaning. This 

King  eternal,  the  only  God. 

18.  This  charge  I  commit  unto  thee,  son  Timothy,  accord- 
ing to  the  prophecies  which  went  before  on  thee,  that  thou 
by  them  mightest  war  a  good  warfare  ; 

19.  Holding  faith,  and  a  good  conscience;  which  some 
having  put  away,  concerning  faith  have  made  shipwreck : 

20.  Of  whom  is  Hymeneus  and  Alexander  ;  whom  I  have 
delivered  unto  Satan,  that  they  may  learn  not  to  blaspheme. 

From  Paul's  words  about  his  own  call  to  the  ministry,  he  passes 
naturally  to  the  circumstances  of  Timothy's  call. 

"  Charge,"  substantially  in  the  modern  sense — a  charge  to  a 
pastor  upon  his  installation ;  a  special  commission  to  a  definite 
service.  Timothy  was  put  into  the  ministry  and  at  this  time  in- 
trusted with  this  special  commission  in  accordance  with  antece- 
dent prophetic  intimations  the  particulars  of  which  are  not  given. 

Paul  compares  his  work  to  a  military  service,  in  the  points 

(we  may  suppose)  of  being  onerous,  exacting,  incessant,  and  un- 
der a  higher  authority.  A  "  good  warfare  "  in  his  ministry  re- 
quired him  to  hold  firmly  upon  faith  and  retain  evermore  a  good 
conscience — well-informed,  true  to  the  right  and  to  God.  Men 
who  repel  the  decisions  of  a  good  conscience,  regardless  of  its 
behests  will  surely  make  shipwreck  of  their  faith.  Paul  had  seen 
this,  and  proceeds  to  name  two  well-known  examples.  We  may 
see  similar  examples  by  scores  in  every  age.  Tracing  back  the 
moral  history  of  those  men  who  make  shipwreck  of  their  faith, 
you  will  very  commonly  find  the  cause  in  a  loose,  perverted  con- 
science. Gospel  truth  first  ])ecame  unpalatable  and  uncomforta- 
ble by  reason  of  their  violation  of  conscience — from  which  point  the 
grade  is  always  downward  into  fital  errors  in  doctrine,  to  the  strand- 
ing of  all  true  faith. Of  these  men — Hymeneus  and  Alexander 

— it  avails  little  at  this  late  day  to  look  after  their  personal  his- 
tory.    '!rh(3ir  moral  history  is  put  here  briefly  but  unmistakably. 

"Delivered  over  unto  Satan"  includes  excommunication  pri- 
marily and  certainly — casting  out  from  the  communion  of  the 
church  into  the  kingdom  of  the  devil;  possilily  also  their  doom 
to  some  physical  infliction,  as  in  the  case  of  Elymas  the  sorcerer 
(Acts  13:  10).  This  power  of  infliction  seems  to  have  been  lodged 
in  the  apostles — a  function  analogous,  though  in  result  the  very 
opposite,  to  the  gift  of  healing.  (See  2  Cor.  13:  2,  10  and  1  Cor. 
4:   19-21.) 


I.    TIMOTHY. — CHAP.    II.  239 


CHAPTER    II. 

Paul  exhorts  to  prayer  for  all  men,  and  for  rulers  especially, 
and  why  (v.  1-4) ;  refers  to  the  truths  vital  to  be  known  for 
men's  salvation  (v.  5,  6) ;  and  again  to  his  apostleship  (v.  7)  and 
to  prayer  (v.  8) ;  to  the  adornment  of  w^omen  (v.  9,  10) ;  that  they 
should  learn  in  silence  and  not  teach  or  assume  authority  over 
man  (v.  11,  12) ;  assigning  reasons,  drawn  from  her  posteriority  in 
creation,  and  her  priority  in  the  flill  (v.  13,  14).  Her  ultimate  sal- 
vation is  through  the  promised  Redeemer  (v.  15). 

1.  I  exhort  therefore,  that,  first  of  all,  supplications, 
prayers,  intercessions,  and  giving  of  thanks,  be  made  for  all 
men; 

2.  For  kings,  and  for  all  that  are  in  authority ;  that  we 
may  lead .  a  quiet  and  peaceable  life  in  all  godliness  and 
honesty. 

Having  given  Timothy  his  "  charge  "  in  very  general  terms,  he 
proceeds  here  to  particulars ;  and  first  enjoins  prayer — prayer  in 

all  its  various  forms  and  for  all  men,  especially  for  rulers. Of 

these  three  several  terms  for  prayer,  the  first  suggests  want  and 
weakness ;  the  second  is  the  general  term  for  prayer  to  God;  and 
the  third  makes  prominent  the  idea  of  approach — drawing  nigh 

to  God. A  special  reason  for  prayer  in  behalf  of  rulers  is  that, 

through  God's  controlling  hand,  they  may  rule  for  the  good  of 
their  subjects,  but  especially  may  rule  so  that  "  ««e" — the  children 
of  God — may  live  unmolested — exempt   from  civil  persecution, 

permitted  to  lead  a  peaceful  life. "In  all  honesty" — but  this 

not  in  the  limited  sense  of  integrity  in  business  transactions,  but 
in  the  broader  sense — appropriate,  dignified  deportment. 

3.  For  this  is  good  and  acceptable  in  the  sight  of  God 
our  Savior; 

4.  AVho  will  have  all  men  to  be  saved,  and  to  come  unto 
the  knowledge  of  the  truth. 

"  For  tliis^' — the  word  tliis  looking  back  to  v.  1 — prayer  for  all 
men,  including  kings  of  course,  but  not  making  their  case  special. 
— "  This  is  good  "  in  itself  and  well-pleasing  before  and  unto  God 
our  Savior,  i.  e.,  to  God  as  a  Savior — one  who  in  this  capacity 
seeks  the  salvation  of  all  men.  Paul  does  not  mean  to  limit 
"  good"  to  the  sight  of  God,  but  to  say,  good  for  every  reason, 
always,  everywhere. 

Verse  4  declares  explicitly  that  God  wills  to  have  all  men  saved. 
The  verb  he  uses  is  not  a  mere  future  tense  of  the  verb  to  save, 
but  is  a  distinct  verb  ^  having  the  sense  of  desiring ;  willing  in 
the  sense  of  an  act  of  will ;  being  pleased  to  do.     There  is  no  oc- 


240  I.    TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  II. 

casion  to  press  this  verb  to  the  sense  of  an  absolute  decree  or  pur- 
pose made  and  executed  irrespective  of  human  agency — other 
verbs  and  never  this  being  used  for  a  purpose  or  decree  which 
God  forms  and  must  execute.  But  it  may,  and  indeed  must,  in- 
voh^e  the  real  desire  of  his  heart  to  save  all  men,  and  his  will  to 
have  all  appropriate  means  used  to  secure  this  result.  Observe, 
this  is  said  here  as  a  reason  why  God's  people  should  pray  for  all 
men — this  being  one  of  the  means  for  their  salvation.  This  will- 
ing that  all  men  be  saved  doubtless  includes  the  full  provision  on 
God's  part  of  atonement  for  all  men,  and  the  freest  and  most 
urgent  entreaties  to  all  men  to  come  to  Christ  for  salvation.  It 
implies  most  fully  that  never  a  man  who  comes  penitently  and  in 
all  sincerity  shall  be  repelled  away. 

Moreover,  let  it  be  carefully  noted  that  as  a  necessary  means 
for  this  salvation  God  wills  that  all  men  should  come  to  the  full 
knowledge  of  the  truth.  It  were  utterly  vain  and  irrational  to 
suppose  that  men  are  to  be  saved  by  the  mere  willing  of  God  to 
save  them,  and  without  their  coming  by  their  own  personal 
activity  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth.  Their  own  voluntary 
agencies,  by  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  must  be  called  into 
action,  and  in  this  particular  line — viz.,  learning,  believing,  obey- 
ing the  truth.  All  regeneration  is  by  and  through  gospel  truth 
known  and  believed.  Thus  Ellicott,  comprehensively :  "  In  a 
word,  redemption  is  universal,  yet  conditional :  all  may  be  saved, 
yet  all  will  not  be  saved,  because  all  will  not  conform  to  God's 
appointed  conditions." 

5.  For  there  is  one  God,  and  one  mediator  between  God 
and  men,  the  man  Christ  Jesus ; 

6.  Who  gave  himself  a  ransom  for  all,  to  be  testified  in 
due  time. 

7.  Whereunto  I  am  ordained  a  preacher,  and  an  apostle 
(I  speak  the  truth  in  Christ,  and  lie  not,)  a  teacher  of  the 
Gentiles  in  faith  and  verity. 

8.  I  will  therefore  that  men  pray  every-where,  lifting  up 
holy  hands,  without  wrath  and  doubting. 

Having  said  that  men  in  order  to  be  saved  must  come  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth,  it  was  for  every  reason  appropriate  to 
indicate  what  truths  men  must  needs  know,  ])elieve  and  act  upon, 
as  necessary  means  for  their  salvation.  Here,  therefore,  they 
are  :  First,  that  there  is  one  Gad — a  primary  truth  as  related  to 
conversion  and  salvation ;  for,  o])viously,  there  can  be  no  salva- 
tion without  returning  to  God,  and  with  equal  certainty,  he  tliat 
conieth  to  God  must  believe  that  he  is — that  there  is  a  God,  yea 
one  God  and  one  only. 

And  next,  one  Mediator  of  God  and  man — a  mediator  being  one 
who  stands  between,  and  who  is  between  in  order  to  mediate — to 
reconcile,  to  bring  into  harmony — which  implies  confidence  and 
love  on  man's  part,  and  acceptance  on  the  part  of  God.     As  this 


I.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.    II.  241 

is  in  itself  a  necessity  for  man's  salvation,  so  it  must  be  a  neces- 
sary truth  to  be  known,  believed,  and  acted  upon.  Further  Paul 
adds — not  precisely  "  the  man,"  but  a  man,  Christ  Jesus,  by  this 
omission  of  the  article  designing  apparently  to  lay  his  emphasis, 
not  upon  the  particular  man  but  upon  his  humanity  itseJf,  i.  e., 
upon  the  fact  that  Jesus  is  a  man,  of  our  own  nature,  and  there- 
fore of  tenderest  sympathies  and  of  perfect  human  experiences. 

What  this  "man'   has  done  for  us  comes  next  in  order — the 

next  truth  vital  toward  human  salvation.  He  "  gave  himself  a 
ransom  for  all."  The  underlying  figure  here  is  redemption  by 
purchase — e.  g.,  redeeming  a  slave  or  a  war-captive  by  payment 

of  some  valuable  consideration. Compared  with  Matt.  20 :  28 

which  has  "  lutron  "  [ransom],  this  has  "  anti-lutron "  [a  com- 
pensating ransom] — making  the  idea  of  substitution — one  thing 
given  for  another  thing  received — ^yet  more  emphatic.  The  pas- 
sages to  be  specially  examined  as  illustrating  this  subject  are 
Rom.  3 :  24-26  and  5:6-10  and  Eph.  5  :  2  and  1  Pet.  2 :  24  and 
much  of  Hebrews,  chapters  7  and  9  and  10.  The  reader  may  be 
referred  to  my  Essay  on  the  Atonement  in  the  volume  on  the 
"  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews." 

"  To  be  testified  in  due  time"  looks  to  the  fact  that  the  full  de- 
velopment of  this  atonement  by  Jesus  Christ  was  reserved  for 
**  the  fullness  of  time  "  when  He  should  be  manifested  on  the 
cross  and  the  true  import  of  this  death  should  be  taught  by  him- 
self and  by  his  apostles.     For  the   purpose   of  developing  this 

glorious  truth  (v.  7)  I  was  ordained  to  the  gospel  ministry. 

Therefore,  in  view  of  these  great  facts  and  of  their  vital  signifi- 
cance toward  the  salvation  of  sinners,  let  prayer  be  made  by  all 
men  every-where,  lifting  up  hands,  not  foul  with  sin  and  thus 
made  loathsome  and  most  repulsive  to  God ;  but  hands  pure  from 
sin  and  hearts  imbued  with  love  (not  hate) ;  with  confidence,  not 
■with  doubt. 

9.  In  like  manner  also,  that  women  adorn  themselves  in 
modest  apparel,  with  shame-facedness  and  sobriety ;  not  with 
braided  hair,  or  gold,  or  pearls,  or  costly  array; 

10.  But  (which  becometh  women  professing  godliness) 
with  good  works. 

Tn  like  manner  T  will  (continuing  this  verb  from  v.  8) — 1  will 
that  women  adorn  their  persons,  not  obtrusively;  not  ostenta- 
tiously ;  above  all,  not  immodestly — for  impure  purposes  and  re- 
sults. The  following  negatives — (things  7iot  to  be  worn)  should 
be  diligently  considered,  at  least  by  Christian  women: — "gold, 
pearls,  costly  array ;  " — for  is  it  thus  that  women  can  adorn  the 
gospel — can  honor  their  Kedeemer — can  put  forward  the  redemp- 
tion of  a  world  from  its  sin  and  ruin  ?  Rather  let  their  adorn- 
ing be  such  as  becomes  women  professing  godliness — viz.,  that  of 
good  works. 

11.  Let  the  woman  learn  in  silence  with  all  subjection. 


242  I.    TIMOTHY. — CHAP.    II. 

12.  But  I  suffer  not  a  woman  to  teacli,  nor  to  usurp  au« 
thority  over  the  man,  but  to  be  in  silence. 

13.  For  Adam  was  first  formed,  then  Eve. 

14.  And  Adam  was  not  deceived,  but  the  woman  being 
deceived  was  in  the  transgression. 

These  verses  treat  of  the  proper  sphere  of  woman  in  two  dis- 
tinct relations  to  society,  viz.  (1.)  That  of  teacher  or  learner  in 
Christian  assemblies:    (2.)    That   of  authority  or  subjection  as 

related  to  her  husband. On  each  point,  Paul's  doctrine  seems 

to  be  very  plainly  expressed — that  (1)  they  should  be  learners  and 
not  teachers;  (2)  should  be  in  subjection,  and  not  in  authority. 

Looking  closely  to  the  precise  sense  of  certain  phrases,  we 
must  explain  "  all  subjection  "  to  mean — not  extreme,  intense 
subjection,  but  rather,  subjection  in  all  things,  in  all  the  various 
relations: — i.  e.,  the  "  ttZZ"  is  not  intensive  but  extensive.  The 
sense  of  "  usurp"  is  not  really  involved  in  the  word  Paul  used, 
for  this  means  simply,  to  exercise  authority.  But  since  this  exer- 
cise is  forbidden  universally,  it  may  be  supposed  that  any  exer- 
cise of  authority  is  usurpation.  In  both  v.  11  and  12,  the  word 
woman  appears  without  the  Greek  article  :  "  Let  woman  learn  in 
silence ;  "  "I  suffer  not  woman  to  teach."  The  intention  seems 
to  be  to  speak  of  woman  as  a  sex — the  doctrine  applying  there- 
fore to  all  women.  Why  does  Paul  put  forward  this  view  as 
specially  his  own,  saying — "I  suffer  not?"  Apparently  he  does 
not  make  the  word  "  I  "  emphatic,  to  distinguish  his  own  teach- 
ing on  this  point  from  that  of  other  apostles  ;  for,  if  so,  he  would 
have  written  the  Greek  personal  pronoun  "  ego  " — which  he  has 
not.  Noticeably  the  parallel  passage  (1  Cor.  14:  34)  has  the  pas- 
sive voice — "  it  is  not  permitted  " — a  statement  which  lays  no 
stress  upon  his  own  personal  opinion. 

The  special  occasion  for  introducing  this  subject  in  this  letter 
to  Timothy,  if  known,  would  probably  answer  our  question.  But 
not  being  known,  we  have  no  data  for  a  decisive  answer. 

Paul's  doctrine  in  regard  to  woman's  public  teaching  and  her 
subjection  also,  he  proceeds  (v.  13,  14)  to  maintain  by  two  his- 
toric facts,  viz.,  her  posteriority  of  creation;  and  her  priority  in 
the  sin  which  constituted  the  fall.  Adam  was  created  first;  Evo 
second.  Eve  sinned  first,  being  really  the  only  one  deceived.  Of 
Adam's  sin  he  says  only — it  did  not  lie  in  being  deceived,  i.  e., 
by  Satan.  In  fact,  Adam's  temptation  came  in  the  social  line — 
sympathy  and  example.  It  may  bo  noticed  that  in  v.  14,  the 
w^ord  used  for  "  deceived  "  is  specially  strong — being  exceedingly 
deceived. 

From  these  arguments  it  appears  that  the  grounds  of  Paul's 
doctrine  lie  back  in  Eden  and  belong  to  the  history  of  man  as  a 
race — a  fact  which  seems  to  bear  against  attaching  any  consider- 
able weight  to  the  special  degradation  of  the  sex  which  no  doubt 
was  prominent  in  botli  Ephosus  and  Corinth.  Ephesus  had  been 
cursed  for  ages  by  the  debasing  power  of  Diana-worship  upon 


I.    TIMOTHY. CHAP.    II.  243 

the  female  sex ;  and  Corinth  was  scarcely  less  notorious  for  the 
debasement  of  woman.  We  must  assume  that  the  women  of 
those  cities  were  very  low  in  the  scale  of  social  culture  and 
adaptation  to  the  work  of  giving  Christian  instruction.  Yet  Paul 
does  not  base  his  doctrine  upon  this  fact. 

15.  Notwithstanding  she  shall  be  saved  in  child-bearing, 
if  they  continue  in  faith  and  charity  and  holiness  with 
sobriety. 

This  verse  should  receive  close  attention. 

There  is  no  apparent  reason  for  any  other  than  the  usual  sense 
for  the  word  "saved" — i.  e.,  saved  unto  everlasting  life — not  in 
the  sense — borne  through  a  dangerous  crisis  in  the  mother's  life. 

For  the  latter  sense  some  other  word  would  have  been  used. 

Moreover  this  condition  of  their  being  saved — ''if  they  persevere 
in  their  Christian  life" — is  good  for  the  usual  sense  of  "saved;" 
but  is  not  true  and  therefore  not  admissible  in  reference  to  the 
perilous  crisis  referred  to. 

Yet  again,  Paul  did  not  say  "  in  child-bearing,"  but  because 
of — by  means  of* And  further,  the  noun  rendered  "  child- 
bearing"  has  the  article,  and  therefore  refers  not  to  all  births  of 
children  but  to  one  birth  in  particular — the  one  which  would 
readily  occur  to  the  reader  of  Gen.  3,  from  which  the  apostle  is 
drawing  his  facts — viz.,  the  birth  of  that  seed  of  the  woman  who 
"  should  bruise  the  serpent's  head." Thus  we  have  this  admir- 
able meaning : — But  [notwithstanding  her  very  great  sin  in  the 
fall]  she  shall  be  saved  [with  the  salvation  of  the  gospel]  by 
means  of  that  wonderful  human  birth  [the  child  Jesus]  the 
promised  "  seed  of  the  woman."  This  promise  shall  be  good,  not 
to  all  women,  but  to  all  who  continue  in  faith,  love  and  holiness. 

The  reader  will  notice  that  this  construction  of  the  passage 

not  only  answers  in  every  respect  to  the  legitimate  meaning  of 
every  word,  but  pre-eminently  to  the  logical  exigencies  of  the 
passage  as  related  to  the  great  sin  of  the  woman  in  the  fall,  and 
to  the  naturally  suggestive  circumstance  that  this  great  first 
promise  lies  in  Moses  between  the  curse  upon  the  serpent  and 
the  curse  upon  the  woman,  being  the  closing  sentence  of  the 
former. 

*  6 La  not  fcv. 


244  I.   TIMOTHY. — CHAP.    III. 


CHAPTER    III. 

Qualifications  of  bishops  (v.  1-7) ;  of  deacons  (v.  8-10) ;  of 
deaconesses  (v.  11) ;  case  of  deacons  resumed  (v-  12,  13);  reasons 
for  giving  these  instructions  (v,  14,  15) ;  the  great  mystery  of  god- 
liness (v.  16). 

1.  This  is  a  true  saying,  If  a  man  desire  the  office  of  a 
bishop,  he  desireth  a  good  work. 

The  term  "bishop"  is  here  in  the  parochial,  not  the  dio- 
cesan, sense:  a  pastor  of  one  church;  not  a  presiding  officer 
over  many,  occupying  a  large  district.  If  at  this  stage  in  church 
development  there  were  any  diocesan  bishops,  Timothy  V70uld  be 
the  man;  not  these  "bishops"  as  to  M'hom  he  now  receives  these 

instructions. If  any  man  has  strong  and  tender  aspirations  for 

this  office,  let  him  be  assured  that  the  work  is  a  good  and  noble 
one.  He  could  desire  none  better  or  more  worthy  of  his  supreme 
devotion. 

2.  A  bishop  then  must  be  blameless,  the  husband  of  one 
wife,  vigilant,  sober,  of  good  behavior,  given  to  hospitality, 
apt  to  teach ; 

3.  Not  given  to  wine,  no  striker,  not  greedy  of  filthy 
lucre ;  but  patient,  not  a  brawler,  not  covetous ; 

A  man  above  reproach,  irreprehensible,  against  whom  no 
charge  of  immorality  can  lie.  Not  a  polygamist,  having  two  or 
more  wives.  Christianity  takes  strong  ground  against  pol3'^amy 
a,s  tlie  natural  foe  to  the  divinely  ordained  family  and  its  house- 
hold.  Does  Paul  insist  that  the  bishop  must  be  a  husband  and 

not  a  celibate  ?  He  seems  to  assume  that  he  will  be.  Yet  as  his 
words  were  apparently  intended  to  bear  simply  against  having 
two  or  more  wives,  it  can  not  be  assumed  that  he  would  exclude 
a  man  because  unmarried,  and  certainly  not  if  (as  is  reasonably 

certain)  Paul  was  a  celibate  himself Ellicott  argues  earnestly 

tliat  Paul  goes  against  any  second  marriage,  even  after  the  death 
of  a  first  wife,  and  appeals  to  5 :  9  below  in  support  of  this 
opinion.  His  arguments  do  not  seem  to  me  conclusive  in  proof 
of  his  position. 

The  Greek  word  for  "vigilant"  means  self-controlled,  self- 
poised,  holding  one's  powers  in  pci'fect  self-possession,  as  opposed 
to  tiie  inebriate.  "Sober  "  is  strictly  of  sound,  well-balanced  mind. 
"Of  good  ])eli!ivioi'"  suggests  polished  or  at  least  unexce]Ui()nable 
manners.  Naturally  hosjtitable — this  virtue  holding  a  high  place 
in  ()ri(intal  society.  Having  the  gift  of  teaching  readily  and 
well.  "Not  a  man  of  wine,"  given  to  indulgence — the  word  sug- 
gesting that  such  [troclivities  carry  with  them  more  or  less  of 
violent  dcmoustratioij,  disorderly  bearing.     "  Not  prepense  to  re- 


I.   TIMOTHY. CHAP.    III.  245 

taliation,"  striking  back;  but  of  gentle,  forbearing  spirit.  "Not 
greedy  of  filthy  lucre" — our  version  has  it — words  which  suggest 
that  Paul  is  not  careful  to  speak  in  soft  terms  of  this  passion; 
would  not  recommend  it  to  our  respect — this  passion  being  in  his 
view  rather  disgusting  than  comely.  Tischendorf  however  re- 
jects this  clause  from  the  'text  here,  but  admits  it  in  v.  8  below 

and  in  Titus  1:  7. The  word  for  "covetous"   has  essentially 

the  same  meaning.  He  must  not  be  a  money-lover.  The  word 
for  "brawler"  means  ^fighter.  The  bishop  must  have  no  pro- 
pensity to  quarrel. 

4.  One  that  ruleth  well  his  own  house,  having  his  chil- 
dren in  subjection  with  all  gravity ; 

5.  (For  if  a  man  know  not  how  to  rule  his  own  house, 
how  shall  he  take  care  of  the  church  of  God  ?) 

6.  Not  a  novice,  lest  being  lifted  up  with  pride  he  fall 
into  the" condemnation  of  the  devil. 

"In  V.  4  "all  gravity"  describes  the  obedience  of  the  children 
rather  than  the  quality  of  the  governing  power.  His  family  gov- 
ernment should  induce  cheerful  obedience. Excellent  logic  is 

this  in  V.  5,  comparing  his  private  house  with  the  house  of  God. 
If  the  former  is  a  great  care,  the  latter  is  greater ;  if  one  fails  in 
the  former,  much  more  will  he  in  the  latter.  "Not  a  novice" — 
strictly  one  recently  planted;  young  in  the  religious  life;  with- 
out experience  and  without  acquired  strength.  His  danger  would 
lie  in  the  line  of  pride,  being  puffed  up  with  his  sudden  elevation 
in  society.  The  word  is  thought  to  imply  a  beclouded,  stupid 
mind,  which  indeed  self-conceit  naturally  produces. "  The  con- 
demnation of  the  devil" — not  that  which  he  adjudges,  but  that 
which  was  adjudged  by  God  against  him.  That  his  damning  sin 
was  pride  has  been  the  current  belief — supposably  the  effect 
(through  his  abuse)  of  distinction,  exaltation,  above  his  virtue  to 
bear.  Take  care  that  your  bishops  be  not  exposed  to  this  temp- 
tation beyond  their  endurance. 

7.  Moreover  he  must  have  a  good  report  of  them  which 
are  without ;  lest  he  fall  into  reproach  and  the  snare  of  the 
devil. 

A  fair  reputation  outside  the  church  will  be  quite  essential; 
for  a  bad  one  will  aggravate  his  temptations  exceedingly  and  be 
to  him  "the  snare  of  the  devil."  The  men  made  prominent  in 
and  over  the  church  should  be  such  as  naturally  command  public 
confidence.  While  this  is  vital  to  the  moral  power  of  the  church 
over  the  community,  it  is  scarcely  less  so  to  the  comfort  and  suc- 
cess of  the  church  officers  themselves. 

8.  Likewise  immi  the  deacons  he  grave,  not  double-tongued, 
not  given  to  much  wine,  not  greedy  of  filthy  lucre ; 

9.  Holding  the  mystery  of  the  faith  in  a  pure  conscience. 


246  I.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  III. 

10.  And  let  tliese  also  first  be  proved :  tlien  let  them  use 
the  office  of  a  deacon,  heing  found  blameless. 

Deacons — the  second  grade  of  church   officers  (Phil.  1 :  1) — 

must   have  these  qualifications. "Grave" — not  frivolous  and 

foolish.  Whose  words  are  honest  and  truthful;  not  double- 
worded  (Greek),  saying  one  thing  to  this  man  and  another  thing 

to  that,  from  sinister  motives. "Not  greedy  of  filthy  lucre"  is 

held  to  be  genuine  here,  having  a  precautionary  bearing  against 
defalcation  in  the  custodians  of  the  church  treasury.  This  was 
their  original  function  (Acts  6).  In  process  of  time,  other  re- 
sponsibilities were  laid  upon  them,  of  discipline  and  of  instruc- 
tion, subordinate  and  helpful  to  the  pastor.  Some  critics  suppose 
deacons  referred  to  Rom.  12:  7  and  1  Cor.  12:  28 — in  the  former 
under  the  word  "diaconate;"  in  the  latter,  "helps." "Hold- 
ing the  mystery  of  the  faith" — the  great  doctrine  of  the  gospel, 
long  unrevealed,  but  brought  to  light  in  the  gospel  age — holding 
it  with  honest  heart,  a  conscience  not  abused  but  sound ;  a  con- 
scientious believer.  "  Be  proved,"  not  by  any  formal  trial  or  even 
investigation,  but  by  the  silent  testimony  of  a  blameless  life. 

11.  Even  so  must  their  wives  be  grave,  not  slanderers, 
sober,  faithful  in  all  things. 

Here  the  question  of  exposition  is  whether  the  verse  refers  to 
deacons'  wives  or  to  deaconesses — i.  e.,  an  official  order  of  female 
workers,  designated  by  the  church  and  doing  church  work. 

In  favor  of  the  latter  and  against  the  former  construction,  lie 
these  considerations : 

1.  The  word  Paul  used  means  "  women"  as  well  as  wives.  Let 
women  likewise  (i.  e.,  women  holding  an  office  of  the  same  sort 
as  the  deacons). 

2.  Paul  could  not  say  in  Greek  ^^deaconesses"  (the  feminine  of 
deacon),  because  this  word  has  in  Greek  no  distinctive  feminine 
form.  In  Rom.  16  :  1  Phebe  is  called  a  "deacon  "  (masculine  form) 
"of  the  church  in  Cenchrea."  If  we  did  not  know  that  she  was  a 
sister,  we  should  assume  that  Paul  meant  a  deacon  in  the  mascu- 
line sense.  Consequently  Paul  in  our  passage  had  no  better  word 
at  command  for  deaconess  than  the  one  he  used,  "women" — i.  c, 
women  holding  an  office  similar  to  the  deacons  just  before 
spoken  of 

3.  Paul  did  not  say  "  ilieir'^  wives.  He  put  here  no  word  for 
their. 

4.  It  would  be  rash  to  assume  that  all  deacons'  wives  would  be 
fit  for  such  church  responsibilities,  and  therefore  the  construction 
which  interprets  the  passage  of  all  deacons'  wives  is  violently  im- 
probable. 

5.  No  corresponding  requirements  are  made  upon  pastors' 
wives;  much  less  then  should  they  be  made  upon  wives  of  dea- 
cons as  such. 

6.  If  these  were  deacons'  wives,  some  place  should  have  been 


I.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  III.  247 

given  to  their  domestic  duties  and  to  their  qualifications  for  such 
duties.  Paul  was  not  the  man  to  overlook  the  Christian  home, 
especially  of  the  deacon. 

I  conclude  therefore  that  this  verse  (as  Paul  wrote  it)  defines 
the  qualifications  of  that  very  useful  order  of  church  laborers — 
the  female  deaconesses.  Comparing  v.  11  with  v.  8,  we  shall  see 
that  their  qualifications  are  essentially  the  same  with  those  of  the 
masculine  diaconate. — "Not  slanderers"  is  here  additional  to 
what  we  have  there,  perhaps  with  reason. 

On  the  other  hand,  "  not  greedy  of  filthy  lucre  "  is  not  here — for 
reasons  equally  obvious,  the  church  funds  not  being  in  their  hand, 
and  perhaps  less  love  of  money  in  their  heart, 

12.  Let  the  deacons  be  the  husbands  of  one  wife,  ruling 
their  children  and  their  own  houses  well. 

13.  For  they  that  have  used  the  office  of  a  deacon  well 
purchase  to  themselves  a  good  degree,  and  great  boldness  in 
the  faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 

Polygamy  is  wisely  made  a  disqualification  for  the  deacon,  it 
being  naturally  fatal  to  the  peace  if  not  to  the  purity  of  the  fiim- 

ily. "  A  good   degree,"  in  the   sense  of  standing,  status,  not 

here,  before  the  public  on  earth,  but  before  God,  this  being  of 
immeasurably  more  importance,  and  affiliating  naturally  with 
their  "great  boldness  in  the  faith  of  Christ."  (See  also  1  Tim. 
6:9.)  To  have  served  well  as  a  deacon  is  to  have  done  a  noble 
work  for  the  church  and  for  God — a  work  which  can  by  no  means 
lose  its  reward. 

14.  These  things  write  I  unto  thee,  hoping  to  come  unto 
thee  shortly: 

15.  But  if  I  tarry  long,  that  thou  mayest  know  how  thou 
oughtest  to  behave  thyself  in  th«  house  of  God,  which  is  the 
church  of  the  living  God,  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the 
truth. 

What  Paul  said  was  "hoping  to  come  to  thee,"  not  "soon,"  but 
sooner— i.  e,,  supposably,  sooner  than  had  been  talked  of,  or  than 
the  tenor  of  these  instructions  might  suggest.  But  as  this  was  a 
doubtful  contingency,  he  would  carefully  instruct  him  how  to  bear 
himself  in  his  supervision  and  care  of  the  house  of  God,  the 
church.  This  use  of  the  word  "  house"  looks  back  to  the  ancient 
temple,  called  often  "the  house." 

This  is  declared  to  be  "  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth  " — 
words  whose  meaning  can  not  well  be  mistaken.  The  church  is 
the  custodian  and  guardian  of  God's  revealed  truth,  her  function 
being  not  only  to  preach  and  teach  it,  but  to  preserve  it  pure,  to 
defend  it  against  perversion. 

16.  And  without  controversy  great  is  the  mystery  of  god- 
liness :  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh,  justified  in  the  Spirit, 


248  I.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  IV. 

seen  of  angels,  preached  unto  the  Gentiles,  believed  on  in 
the  world,  received  up  into  glory. 

"  Confessedly  great  is  the  mystery  of  godliness" — i.  e.,  the  mys- 
tery -which  enshrouds  the  great  central  truth  of  the  gospel  scheme : 
— said  with  reference  to  the  incarnation,  God  made  manifest  in 
human  flesh. 

The  next  word  in  our  version,  "God,"  has  elicited  immense  dis- 
cussion with  great  diversity  of  views  on  the  point  of  its  textual 
authority.  The  more  recently  discovered  manuscripts  have 
brought  new  light,  and  as  a  consequence  of  more  exhaustive  in- 
vestigation, it  is  now  almost  universally  agreed  to  reject  Theos 
[God]  as  not  well  sustained,  and  to  accept  instead  the  Greek  rela- 
tive pronoun  masculine  (oo)  in  the  sense  who,  its  antecedent 
being  really  the  person  implied  in  the  word  "mystery" — that 
wonderful  Personage,  the  Logos  of  John,  whose  nature  and  rela- 
tions involve  the  utmost  mystery,  but  who  yet  is  known  to  mortals 
by  the  descriptive  facts  here  affirmed  of  him.  First,  "made  man- 
ifest in  the  flesh;"  next,  "justified"  [sustained]  in  his  claim  to 
be  the  eternal  Son  of  God  by  his  manifestations  of  spirit — i.  e., 
in  and  through  his  higher  spiritual  nature;  next,  "seen  of  an- 
gels," apparently  in  the  sense  of  being  revealed  to  their  aston- 
ished gaze  as  never  before,  and  we  may  suppose  as  he  never  could 
have  been  save  through  this  incarnation;  then  preached  among 
Gentiles ;  believed  on  in  the  world ;  and  finally  received  into  glory 
at  his  ascension. 

This  remarkable  series  of  clauses,  so  entirely  similar  in  con- 
struction ;  six  passive  verbs  all  in  the  same  mood  and  the  same 
tense,  followed  each  by  its  noun  in  the  same  case  and  with  a  sin- 
gle exception,  preceded  by  the  same  preposition,  strongly  suggest 
that  the  whole  verse  is  transferred  from  some  Christian  hymn, 
prepared  for  a  doxology  in  honor  of  the  Christian's  Savior.  This 
theory  would  well  account  for  the  apparent  abruptness  of  the 
relative  pronoun  which  heads  the  sentence  with  no  distinctly  de- 
veloped antecedent. This  grouping  of  similar  phrases  respect- 
ing Jesus  Christ  was  designed  to  present  the  great  historic  facts 
of  his  incarnation,  earthly  life,  death,  and  final  ascension. 


>J*ic 


CHAPTER  TV. 

On  swerving  from  the  faith  into  ascetic  practices  (v.  1-3);  as- 
cetic abstinence  from  meats  unreasonable  (v.  4,  5) ;  how  'J'iniothy 
should  bear  himself  in  this  rc^^ard  (v.  G-8) ;  enforced  by  the  ex- 
ample of  apostles  (v.  9,  10);  Timothy  exhorted  to  a  bhimeloss  and 
studious  life  (v.  11-13);  to  cultivate  his  spiritual  gifts  with  much 
meditation  and  j^rcat  <liliif;cnce  that  so  he  may  save  both  himself 
and  his  hearers  (v.  14-16). 


I.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.   IV.  249 

1.  Now  the  Spirit  speaketh  expressly,  that  in  the  latter 
times  some  shall  depart  from  the  faith,  giving  heed  to  seduc- 
ing spirits,  and  doctrines  of  devils  ; 

2.  Speaking  lies  in  hypocrisy;  having  their  conscience 
seared  with  a  hot  iron ; 

3.  Forbidding  to  marry,  and  commanding  to  abstain  from 
meats,  which  God  hath  created  to  be  received  with  thanks- 
giving of  them  which  believe  and  know  the  truth. 

Obviously  these  "  latter  times "  were  not  supposed  to  be  very 
remote  even  then,  for  Paul  considers  the  development  of  heretical 
opinions  then  apparent  as  at  least  an  incipient  fulfillment  of  those 
predictions.  These  express  predictions  may  have  been  made  to 
Paul  himself;  and  also  in  substance  to  other  apostles.  See  2  Pet. 
2:  1  and  1  John  2:  18  and  4:  1-3.  This  apostasy  from  the  faith 
comes  from  giving  heed  to  seducing  spirits  and  doctrines — not 
concerning  devils,  but  taught  by  devils — a  clear  reference  to  Sa- 
tanic  agency. In  v.  2,   it    is    the   seduced — not   the   Satanic 

seducer — vrho  work  in  the  hypocrisy  of  lying  speakers  [the 
literal  construction] — men  of  cauterized  conscience — its  normal 
action  being  deadened  and  practically  ruled  out  by  the  self- 
hardening  effect  of  doctrinal  delusion  and  of  the  sin-loving  spirit. 
A  healthy  and  rightly  sensitive  conscience  has  great  conservative 
power  against  erratic  beliefs  and  a  damaging  asceticism.  The 
revolting  delusions  referred  to  here  were  possible  only  because 
their  advocates  had  lost  the  corrective  and  preserving  agency  of 
a  sound  and  vigorous  conscience. 

Other  points  of  delusion  were — prohibition  of  marriage ;  and 

requiring  abstinence  from  certain  articles  of  food. "  Meats" — 

not  necessarily  flesh,  but  food  generally. That  this  prohibition 

was  gratuitous,  uncalled  for,  and  bad  if  not  even  morally  wrong, 
is  shown  in  the  fact  that  God  created  this  food  for  those  who  be- 
lieve and  know  the  truth — to  be  received  indeed  with  thanksgiv- 
ing. Paul  would  not  deny  that  men  not  believers  and  not 
knowing  the  truth  might  also  use  this  food,  God  having  provided 
it  for  them  as  well,  that  so  his  goodness  might  lead  them  to 
repentance  and  thanksgiving.  But  his  present  argument  required 
him  to  speak  of  Christian  men  inasmuch  as  these  teachers  of  de- 
lusion maintained  that  the  highest  piety  required  celibacy  and 
abstinence  from  certain  food.  These  mischievous  doctrines  Paul 
refutes. 

Historically,  these  ascetic  notions  appeared  early  as  an  offshoot 
from  Judaism,  in  sects  known  as  the  Essenes  and  the  Therapeutae. 
At  a  somewhat  later  period,  these  notions  degenerated  into  yet 
more  serious  aberration  under  the  influence  of  Oriental  philoso- 
phy and  erratic  fancy,  to  the  result  of  what  is  known  in  early 
church  history  as  Gnosticism. 

4.  For  every  creature  of  God  is  good,  and  nothing  to  be 
refused,  if  it  be  received  with  thanksgiving : 


250  I.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.    IV. 

5.  For  it  Is  sanctified  by  the  word  of  God  and  prayer. 

Every  thing  created  of  God,  i.  e.,  for  the  food  of  man,  is  in 
itself  good,  and  by  no  means  to  be  rejected  as  if  it  were  a  sin  to 
eat  it ;  yet  should  it  be  received  with  thanksgiving  (especially  at 
our  meals).  It  becomes  to  us  holy  in  the  sense  of  not  sinful  to 
use  it,  since  God's  word  (of  permission)  has  put  it  at  our  service. 
Prayer  befits  us  as  children  at  our  Father's  table. 

6.  If  thou  put  the  brethren  in  remembrance  of  these 
things,  thou  shalt  be  a  good  minister  of  Jesus  Christ,  nour- 
ished up  in  the  words  of  faith  and  of  good  doctrine,  where- 
unto  thou  hast  attained. 

To  suggest  these  things  to  the  brethren  becomes  the  manifest 
duty  of  the  faithful,  well-instructed  minister  of  Christ.  Let  not 
Timothy  think  of  them  as  lying  outside  the  pale  of  his  respon- 
sibilities. It  is  fully  assumed  here  that  these  ascetic  doctrines — 
forbidding  marriage  and  enjoining  abstinence  from  certain  food 
— are  essentially  pernicious.  If  we  ask  hoio  and  loJnj,  the  an- 
swer is  at  hand: — They  displace  the  true  gospel  and  its  real 
Savior,  and  bring  in  what  is  no  gospel ;  they  teach  men  to  trust 
in  what  is  worse  than  worthless,  and  so,  they  rule  out  all  proper 
trust  in  Christ.  Worst  of  all,  this  religion  lias  a  large  place  for 
human  pride  and  no  place  for  real  prayer — no  place  for  the  gra- 
cious help  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 

7.  But  refuse  profane  and  old  wives'  fables,  and  exercise 
thyself  rather  unto  godliness. 

8.  For  bodily  exercise  profiteth  little:  but  godliness  is 
profitable  unto  all  things,  having  promise  of  the  life  that 
now  is,  and  of  that  which  is  to  come. 

*'  Profane " — not  precisely  irreverent,  blasphemous  toward 
God ;  but  godless,  pernicious ;  worse  than  frivolous  and  foolish. 
"  Old  wives'  " — better,  old  women's.  "  Fables" — literally,  myths, 
low  superstitions,  having  no  other  origin  than  a  diseased,  per- 
verted fancy.  "  Exercise  "  in  this  connection  has  no  reference  to 
physical  labor  or  recreation — muscular  practice  for  health — but 
merely  to  asceticism  ;  abstinence  from  food  ;  self-imposed  subju- 
gation of  appetite,  pushed  sometimes  to  the  extent  of  self-torture. 
Such  "  bodily  exercise,"  Paul  says,  is  of  little  worth.  It  should 
never  be  confounded  with  godliness  or  for  a  moment  be  compared 
with  it  in  value.  Godliness  brings  the  promise  of  life — real 
blessedness,  both  here  and  hereafter. 

9.  This  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of  all  accepta- 
tion. 

10.  For  therefore  we  both  labor  and  suffer  reproach,  be- 
cause we  trust  in  the  living  God,  who  is  the  Savior  of  aU 
men,  especially  of  those  that  believe. 


I.   TIMOTHY. — CHAP.    IV.  251 

That  godliness  brings  to  man  the  highest  good  of  both  time  and 
eternity  is  perfectly  true  and  most  reliable.  In  the  faith  it  in- 
spires we  both  labor  and  suffer  reproach. 

In  the  general  sense  God  is  the  Savior  of  all  men;  viz.,  in  the 
sense  of  having  provided  salvation  for  all  and  of  suspending  the 
execution  of  law  upon  the  race  so  as  to  afford  them  a  probation- 
ary life  in  which  to  secure  salvation.  Of  those  that  believe,  he  is 
specially  the  Savior,  in  the  high  and  perfect  sense. 

11.  These  things  Gommand  and  teach. 

12.  Let  no  man  despise  thy  youth ;  but  be  thou  an  exam- 
ple of  the  believers,  in  word,  in  conversation,  in  charity,  in 
spirit,  in  faith,  in  purity. 

Let  thy  gravity  and  personal  dignity  of  bearing  and  character 
be  such  that  no  man  can  despise  thee  for  thy  youth. "  An  ex- 
ample in  conversation  " — which  as  usual  for  this  word  in  the 
Scriptures,  is  not  speech,  talk,  but  the  whole  tenor  of  life.  And 
moreover,  "charity,"  here  as  ever  in  Paul,  is  love. 

13.  Till  I  come,  give  attendance  to  reading,  to  exhorta- 
tion, to  doctrine. 

14.  Neglect  not  the  gift  that  is  in  thee,  which  was  given 
thee  by  prophecy,  with  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the 
presbytery. 

15.  Meditate  upon  these  things;  give  thyself  wholly  to 
them :  that  thy  profiting  may  appear  to  all. 

16.  Take  heed  unto  thyself,  and  unto  the  doctrine;  con- 
tinue in  them :  for  in  doing  this  thou  shalt  both  save  thy- 
self, and  them  that  hear  thee. 

"The  gift"  [charisma]  one  of  those  special  gifts  of  the  Spirit, 
common  in  the  apostolic  age ;  brought  to  view  fully  in  Paul  to  the 

Corinthians  (1  Eps.  12). This  had  been  conferred  upon  him 

as  the  result  of  prophetic  pre-intimations  as  to  his  future  work 
and  in  connection  with  his  ordination  by  the  presbytery,  prob- 
ably at  the  time  he  gave  himself  to  the  gospel  ministry  under 
Paul  (Acts  16  :  1-3). This  apostolic,  fatherly  counsel,  to  dili- 
gence in  study,  reading,  meditation  and  to  supreme  devotion  to 
his  work,  can  not  be  too  highly  commended;  can  not  be  too 
faithfully  followed  by  all  the  Timothys  of  every  age. 


252  I.   TIMOTHY, — CHAP.   V. 


CHAPTER   V 


How  to  treat  the  elder  brethren  and  the  younger  (v.  1);  also 
the  elder  and  the  younger  women,  and  the  widows  especially 
(v.  2-7);  duty  of  providing  for  one's  own  (v.  8);  who  should  be 
enrolled  as  widows  (v.  9,  10).  The  case  of  the  younger  widows 
(v.  11-15);  they  should  be  cared  for  within  their  own  family  (v. 
16).  Of  the  honor  due  to  faithful  elders  (v.  17,  18);  of  their  dis- 
cipline (v.  19,  20);  solemn  adjuration  against  prejudice  and  par- 
tiality (v.  21).  On  imposition  of  hands  (v.  22);  the  medicinal 
use  of  wine  (v.  23) ;  and  of  estimating  the  sins  or  the  good  deeds 
of  men  (v.  25). 

1.  Kebuke  not  an  elder,  but  entreat  him  as  a  father;  and 
the  younger  men  as  brethren ; 

The  word  "rebuke"  is  strong,  to  the  extent  of  severe  repii- 
mand.  This  would  be  in  very  bad  taste  for  a  young  man  like 
Timothy.  Rather,  treat  him  as  a  father,  even  when  he  is  appar- 
ently culpable. 

The  question  of  interpretation  here  is  whether  this  is  an  elder 
in  office  or  in  age  only.  In  favor  of  its  being  the  elder  in  age  is 
the  antithesis  with  the  younger  men ; — but  over  against  this  is 
the  use  of  the  singular  number.  If  Paul  had  meant  all  old  men 
as  such,  why  did  he  not  use  the  plural,  and  so  make  the  antithetic 
relation  clear  and  complete  ? 

2.  The  elder  women  as  mothers;  the  younger  as  sisters, 
with  all  purity. 

3.  Honor  widows  that  are  widows  indeed. 

4.  But  if  any  widow  have  children  or  nephews,  let  them 
learn  first  to  show  piety  at  home,  and  to  requite  their  par- 
ents: for  that  is  good  and  acceptable  before  God. 

"With  all  purity,"  was  very  pertinent  counsel  for  a  young 

man. "Widows  indeed" — really  left  desolate,  with  no  natural 

protector  and  provider. "  Nephews  " — not  the  sons  of  a  brother 

or  a  sister,  but  grandchildren,  according  to  the  old  English,  but 

now    obsolete,    sense    of  this   word. Let  these   children  and 

grandchildren  learn  to  fulfill  the  duties  of  piety  in  their  own 
house  [family],  and  requite  their  parents  or  grandparents,  paying 
some  of  the  mighty  debt  of  parental  care  and  support  contracted 
during  their  own  infancy  and  childhood.  This  is  right  before 
God. 

5.  Now  she  that  is  a  widow  indeed,  and  desolate,  trusteth 
in  God,  and  continueth  in  supplications  and  prayers  night 
and  (lay. 

G.  But  she  that  livctli  in  pleasure  is  dead  while  she  liv- 
eth. 


I.    TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  V.  253 

7.  And  these  things  give  in  charge,  that  they  may  be 
blameless. 

"The  widow  indeed  "  is  "  desolate"  in  the  sense  of  having  none 
who  by  natural  ties  befriend  and  provide  for  her.  Such  are 
thrown  by  the  force  of  circumstances  upon  trust  in  God  and  upon 
unceasing  prayer.     Ye  may  know  them  as  desolate  and  needing 

aid  by  those  fruits  of  their  bereavement. Does  Paul  mean  to 

say  that  no  widow  should  receive  church  aid  until  she  exhibits 
these  fruits  of  her  trial — this  trust  in  God  and  this  special  pray- 
erfulness? The  view  given  above  seems  to  be  the  fair  con- 
struction of  his  words.  Assuming  her  real  piety,  you  may  ex- 
pect to  find  these  fruits  of  her  bereavement,  provided  she  have 
no  human  reliance  but  is  thrown  naked  upon  God. 

"She  that  liveth  in  pleasure,"  riotously,  wastefully;  in  sensu- 
ality and  in  the  pleasure-loving  spirit — is  really  dead  already — 
has  lost  all  spiritual  life.  She  has  no  claim  on  the  church  for 
support. "These  things,"  requiring  discrimination  among  ap- 
plicants for  church  benevolence,  ye  must  insist  upon. 

8.  But  if  any  provide  not  for  his  own,  and  specially  for 
those  of  his  own  house,  he  hath  denied  the  faith,  and  is 
worse  than  an  infidel.    . 

If  any  Christian  brother  refuse  to  provide  for  his  near  relatives, 
and  specially  for  those  of  his  own  family  and  household,  he  re- 
pudiates his  Christian  faith,  disowns  its  obligations,  and  is  worse 
than  a  heathen;  for  the  better  class  of  heathen  fully  recognize 
the  obligation  to  care  for  their  own  households,  and  particularly 

for  their  parents  and  grandparents. Of  the  Essenes,  to  whose 

opinions  this  epistle  alludes  more  than  once,  it  is  said  that  they 
did  not  permit  men  to  give  relief  to  their  near  relatives  without 
special  leave  from  their  overseers,  though  they  might  freely  give 
aid  to  outsiders,  supposed  to  be  in  need.  This  doctrine  Paul 
would  pointedly  disown  and  repudiate. 

9.  Let  not  a  widow  be  taken  into  the  number  under  three- 
score years  old,  having  been  the  w^ife  of  one  man, 

10.  Well  reported  of  for  good  works;  if  she  have  brought 
up  children,  if  she  have  lodged  strangers,  if  she  have  washed 
the  saints'  feet,  if  she  have  relieved  the  afflicted,  if  she  have 
diligently  followed  every  good  work. 

On  these  verses,  the  great  question  strenuously  debated  by  the 
critics,  is,  whether  the  class  thus  enrolled  ["  taken  into  the  num- 
ber "]  is  one  of  semi-official  character — widows  bearing  church 
responsibilities,  analogous  to  deaconesses ;  or  on  the  contrary,  is 
simply  a  class  accepted  by  the  church  as  worthy  of  her  support 

by  pecuniary  aid. The  former  supposition  is  largely  defended 

by  impugning  the  latter;  on  the  grounds — that  for  a  class  to  be 
simply  supported,  (a)  The  age  is  too  high ;— (&)  That  it  would 


254  I.  TIMOTHY. — CHAr.  V. 

be  cruel  to  reject  all  of  less  age; — (c)  That  the  qualifications  are 

too  high. it  is  also  urged  that  early  church  history  recognizes 

a  class  of  widows,  holding  semi-official  relations  and  performing 
useful  functions  in  behalf  of  the  church.  As  to  this  argument, 
it  should  be  asked — How  early  does  this  official  class  appear  ? 

Against  the  theory  of  an  official  class  and  in  favor  of  suppos- 
ing this  enrollment  to  be  simply  of  recipients  of  church  aid,  it 
may  be  said — An  official  class  should  have  been  more  clearly 
defined  by  some  distinctive  name  or  title;  that  we  have  had  dea- 
conesses before  (chap.  3:  11)  and  can  not  look  for  another  allu- 
sion to  them  here,  nor  does  the  church  need,  nor  has  she  ever 
had  a  second  class  of  official  functionaries ; — also  that  it  would 

be  quite  unreasonable  to  exclude  all  under  this  specified  age. 

On  the  whole,  the  evidence  preponderates  in  favor  of  assuming 
that  this  enrollment  refers  to  widows  as  recipients  of  aid,  and  not 

as  holding  church  office. "  Having  been  the  wife  of  but  one 

man"  and  not  of  two  in  succession.     This  seems  to  be  the  fair 

construction  of  these  words. V.  10  gives  the  points  of  a  fiiir 

record  in  the  womanly  and  maternal  qualities  of  a  Christian 
mother.  Lacking  this  record,  the  widow  could  not  come  upon 
the  roll  of  beneficiary  aid  from  the  church.  Such  a  rule  would 
indirectly  be  an  incentive  to  a  useful,  honorable  Christian  life. 

11.  But  the  younger  widows  refuse:  for  when  they  have 
begun  to  wax  wanton  against  Christ,  they  will  marry ; 

12.  Having  damnation,  because  they  have  cast  off  their 
first  fiiith. 

13.  And  withal  they  learn  to  be  idle,  wandering  about 
from  house  to  house ;  and  not  only  idle,  but  tattlers  also  and 
busy  bodies,  speaking  things  which  they  ought  not. 

14.  I  will  therefore  that  the  younger  women  marry,  bear 
children,  guide  the  house,  give  none  occasion  to  the  adver- 
sary to  speak  reproachfully. 

is.  For  some  are  already  turned  aside  after  Satan. 

Why,  as  a  general  rule,  widows  under  sixty  should  be  rejected. 
They  are  not  beyond  the  temptation  to  "  wax  wanton  against 
Ciirist" — the  sense  of  these  words  suggesting  fullness  of  strength, 
an  excess  of  animal  spirits;  also  luxury,  coupled  with  laxness 
of  moral  restraint,  and  little  or  no  regard  for  the  law  of  Christ. 

In  the  clause  "They  will  marry,"  the  reader  must  not  take 

"  will  "  to  be  merely  the  future  tense.  It  is  a  verb  of  willing, 
choosing,   perhaps  here,   passionately  desiring.      They  are   pro- 

pense    toward    marriage. "Having    damnation,"     seems    too 

strong,  the  sense  l)eing — bearing  or  exhibiting  in  their  very  de- 
meanor this  condemnation  against  themselves — that  they  have 
cast  off  their  former  faitii.  Tlioy  show  at  a  front  view — on  their 
very  face — that  they  disown  Christ,  have  ronounced  their  Chris- 
tian faith. Some  critics  hold  the  meaning  to  be — have  broken 


I.   TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  V.  255 

their  pledge  not  to  marry — it  being  claimed  that  they  gave  this 
pledge  when  received  upon  the  list  of  beneficiaries.  But  accord- 
ing to  Paul  these  younger  widows  have  not  been  put  upon  this 
list.  Nor  is  there  proof  that  so  early  as  this,  any  vow  of  vir- 
ginity, or  vow  not  to  marry,  was  exacted  or  even  received.  On 
the  contrary,  Paul  gives  it  as  his  judgment  that  these  widows 
should  marry.  The  evils  of  taking  widows  still  young  upon  the 
list  of  church  beneficiaries  were  obvious  and  manifold.  Let  them 
rather  resume  the  family  relation  again  and  discharge  its  re- 
sponsibilities honorably.  So  doing  they  will  be  less  likely  to 
give  occasion  to  any  adverse  men  to  reproach  the  gospel,  and 
will  less  expose  themselves  to  be  ensnared  by  Satan. 

16.  If  any  man  or  woman  that  believe th  have  widows,  let 
them  relieve  them,  and  let  not  the  church  be  charged;  that 
it  may  relieve  them  that  are  widows  indeed. 

Let  Christian  men  or  women,  having  widows  in  their  own 
family  circle,  provide  for  them  without  burdening  the  church. 

17.  Let  the  elders  that  rule  well  be  counted  worthy  of 
double  honor,  especially  they  who  labor  in  the  word  and 
doctrine. 

18.  For  the  Scripture  saith,  Thou  shalt  not  muzzle  the  ox 
that  treadeth  out  the  corn.  And,  The  laborer  is  worthy  of 
his  reward. 

The  pith  of  this  precept  is — Esteem  church  officers  highly  in 
love  for  their  works'  sake,  giving  them  honor,  not  so  much  for 
their  office  as  for  their  service.  Let  such  as  do  their  work  ex- 
ceptionally well  have  double  honor,  especially  those  who  both 
preach  the  word  and  teach  sound  doctrine.  This  word  '' es- 
pecially''  does  not  necessarily  assume  an  order  of  teaching  elders 
distinct  from  the  ruling,  for  those  who  labored  in  word  and  doc- 
trine so  well  may  have  done  so  unofficially,  through  love  of  the 
work  and  by  virtue  of  special  fitness  for  it.     Officially,  therefore, 

they  may  have  stood  on  the  common  footing  of  all  the  elders. 

The  word  "  honor  "*  is  thought  to  carry  in  itself  the  sense  of 
compensation.  But  if  not  lexically,  it  certainly  does  here^  by 
implication,  for  the  next  verse  shows  that  Paul  has  compensation, 
real  financial  support  in  his  mind.  Toward  this,  his  appeal  to 
ancient  scripture  legitimately  bears.  "  Thou  shalt  not  muzzle 
the  ox  lohile  treading  out  the  grain;" — it  would  be  inhuman, 
cruel — in  the  very  sight  of  his  food !  See  the  passage  (Deut.  25 :  4) 
and  Paul's  argument  from  it  (1  Cor.  9:  7-11). 

19.  Against  an  elder  receive  not  an  accusation,  but  before 
two  or  three  witnesses. 


256  I.    TIMOTHY. — CHAP.    V. 

20.  Them  that  sin  rebuke  before  all,  that  others  also 
may  fear. 

No  complaint  against  an  elder  should  be  entertained  unless 
well  substantiated  hj  testimony.  Special  reasons  for  this  precept 
will  readily  suggest  themselves — so  readily  that  Paul  might  ex- 
cuse himself  from  referring  to  them — such  as  the  mischief  done 
to  religion  by  groundless  charges;  and  their  special  exposure  to 
scandal  and  slander  from  those  Avho  are  at  heart  hostile  to  Chris- 
tianity. 

21.  I  charge  thee  before  God,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  the  elect  angels,  that  thou  observe  these  things  without 
preferring  one  before  another,  doing  nothing  by  partiality. 

"  Elect  angels  " — the  unfallen.  This  solemn  adjuration  refers 
apparently  to  all  the  instructions  Paul  has  been  giving  in  refer- 
ence to  the  discipline  of  erring  members,  and  perhaps,  nlso,  to 
the  distribution  of  church  alms  to  the  poor.  By  all  the  mo- 
mentous interests  of  the  church  of  the  living  God — as  in  the 
presence  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  let 
Timothy  guard  his  mind  against  prejudice  and  against  partiality. 
Let  him  have  no  respect  of  persons ;  no  favoritism. 

22.  Lay  hands  suddenly  on  no  man,  neither  be  partaker 
of  other  men's  sins:  keep  thyself  pure. 

Even  sensible  critics  disagree  as  to  the  significance  of  this  im- 
position of  hands — many,  probably  most,  referring  it  to  the  act 
of  ordination  to  the  ministry;  but  some  to  official  remission  of 
sins.  Inasmuch  as  Paul  is  familiar  with  the  laying  on  of  hands 
in  the  former  sense  (see  above,  4 :  14),  there  seems  no  valid  ob- 
jection to  this  interpretation  here.  As  to  the  remitting  of  sins 
by  this  act,  the  existence  of  such  a  usage  at  this  early  day  is  very 
questionable.      I   am    aware   of  no  authority  for  it  in  the  New 

Testament. What   is  said  here  may  be  applied  to  ordination. 

Unworthy  candidates — men  with  real  faults  of  character  and  of 
life — may  apply.  Take  care  that  you  know  them  thoroughly  be- 
fore you  lay  hands  upon  their  heads.  Make  not  thyself  respon- 
sible for  admitting  such  sins  into  the  ministry  lest  you  become 
virtually  partaker  in  their  guilt,  and  an  occasion  of  great  scandal 
to  Christianity. 

23.  Drink  no  longer  water,  but  use  a  little  wine  for  thy 
stomach's  sake  and  thine  often  infirmities. 

"Keep  thyself  pure" — Paul  had  said;  but  adds  here — Do  not 
understand  me  to  speak  in  the  ascetic  sense,  of  the  purity  sup- 
posed to  come  of  abstinence  from  cither  food  or  drink  (after  the 
doctrine  of  the  Esseucs). 


I.    TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  VI.  257 

On  this  point  my  advice  is — Be  not  a  water-drinker  exclusively; 
but  for  your  health's  sake,  use  a  little  vrine,  under  your  manifold 

infirmities. We  are  incompetent  to  judge  of  Paul's  medical 

skill  in  this  particular  prescription ;  but  it  is  legitimate  to  say 
that  in  his  view  it  was  no  sin,  under  the  circumstances  of  that 
age,  to  use  wine  in  small  quantities  as  a  medicine. 

24.  Some  men's  sins  are  open  beforehand,  going  before  to 
judgment ;  and  some  men  they  follow  after. 

25.  Likewise  also  the  good  works  of  some  are  manifest 
beforehand ;  and  they  that  are  otherwise  can  not  be  hid. 

These  verses  apparently  follow  v.  22  in  thought,  suggesting  the 
fact  that  in  judging  of  men  as  candidates  for  the  ministry — some 
men's  sins  would  be  readily  manifest,  indicating  at  once  what 
your  judgment  ought  to  be,  so  that  you  might  know  them  be- 
forehand and  need  not  wait  for  time  or  temptation  to  reveal 
them ;  while  in  the  case  of  other  men,  their  sins  come  to  light 
only  afterwards.  And  so,  in  like  manner  of  their  good  points 
and  good  works ;  some  would  show  their  better  things  at  once  ; 
in  the  case  of  others,  time  would  be  necessary  to  reveal  them. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

Duties  of  Christian  servants  and  especially  to  believing  mas- 
ters (v.  1,  2);  as  to  those  who  teach  otherwise  (v.  3-5);  that  god- 
liness with  contentment  is  great  gain,  and  why  (v.  6-8) ;  the 
passion  for  riches  pernicious  (v.  9,  10) ;  the  higher  life  of  the 
man  of  God  (v.  11,  12),  a  charge  made  specially  solemn  by  its  re- 
lation to  the  coming  Savior  and  the  glorious  God  (v.  13-16);  how 
he  should  instruct  and  admonish  the  rich  (v.  17-19) ;  points  to  be 
specially  avoided  (20,  21). 

1.  Let  as  many  servants  as  are  under  the  yoke  count  their 
own  masters  worthy  of  all  honor,  that  the  name  of  God  and 
his  doctrine  be  not  blasphemed. 

2.  And  they  that  have  believing  masters,  let  them  not 
despise  them^  because  they  are  brethren  ;  but  rather  do  tliem 
service,  because  they  are  faithful  and  beloved,  partakers  of 
the  benefit.     These  things  teach  and  exhort. 

Paul's  words  do  not  imply  (as  our  version  might  be  supposed  to 
do)  that  there  may  be  some  servants  not  under  the  yoke.  What 
Paul  said  was  this :  Let  all  those  who  are  under  the  yoke,  being 
servants — i.  e.,  in  this  domestic  and  legal  relation  of  servitude. 


258  I.   TIMOTHY. — CHAP.   VI. 

Let  them  account  their  own  masters,  whether  godly  or  un- 
godly, to  be  worthy  of  all  due  respect.  The  supposition  is  that 
these  are  Christian  servants,  and  therefore  come  under  Timothy's 
instruction  as  such.  Respectful  treatment  of  their  masters  would 
adorn  the  gospel.  Let  them  not  assume  that  their  embracing 
Christianity  and  being  welcomed  into  the  church  as  real  men, 
had  lifted  them  above  the  obligations  of  due  respect  and  reason- 
able service  toward  their   masters.- Moreover,  in   the  case  of 

believing  masters,  let  them  not  despise  them  because  themselves 
have  been  brought  upon  a  higher  social  footing  by  conversion 
and  reception  into  the  church  as  men  and  brethren.  The  rather 
should  they  render  cheerful  service  because  the  partakers  of  the 
benefit  are  believers  and  beloved.  Here  the  phrase — "  the  par- 
takers of  the  benefit"  is  certainly  the  subject  (nominative)  of  the 
verb.  I  understand  this  clause — "  the  partakers,"  etc.,  to  assume 
that  duties,  relations,  and  beneficial  results,  under  the  then  exist- 
ing servitude,  were  reciprocal  and  mutual — the  servant  having 
some  of  the  benefits  and  the  master  some.  Now  inasmuch  as  the 
master,  standing  in  this  reciprocal  relation  and  having  good  to 
receive  as  well  as  to  confer,  had  become  a  Christian  believer  and 
a  beloved  brother,  therefore,  the  more  let  the  Christian  servant 
render  his  service  cheerfully. 

3.  If  any  man  teach  otherwise,  and  consent  not  to  whole- 
some words,  even  the  words  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to 
the  doctrine  which  is  according  to  godliness ; 

4.  He  is  proud,  knowing  nothing,  but  doting  about  ques- 
tions and  strifes  of  words,  whereof  cometh  envy,  strife,  rail- 
ings, evil  surmisings, 

5.  Perverse  disputings  of  men  of  corrupt  minds,  and  des- 
titute of  the  truth,  supposing  that  gain  is  godliness:  from 
such  withdraw  thyself 

The  close  connection  with  the  preceding  context  seems  to  show 
that  this  "  teaching  otherwise  "  must  refer  to  the  duties  of  Chris- 
tian servants  ;  but  what  the  particular  type  of  this  "  other  teach- 
ing" was,  is  not  very  clearly  brought  out.  The  last  clause  of  v. 
5  assumes  that  those  teachers  of  other  doctrine  thought  to  make 

godliness  a  source  of  gain. '"Wholesome  words"  are  further 

described  as  coming  to  us  from  the  Lord  himself  and  the  doctrine 
in  harmony  with  true  godliness. "  Is  proud  " — really  obfus- 
cated, of  foggy  brain  (perhaps  thought  of  as  the  fruit  of  pride) ; 
— "knowing  nothing  well." "  Doting,"  in  the  sense  of  a  mor- 
bid passion,  not  wholesome  and  healthy,  but  rather  the  fruit  of  a 

mind  diseased. Over  disputed  questions  and  logomachies — in 

which  the  controversy  is  upon  words,  not  things; — word-battles. 

"Disputings" — not  precisely   "perverse,"  but,  according  to 

the  corrected  text,  persistent,  inveterate,  never-ending. "  Men 

of  corrupt  mind"; — l)otter,  of  corrupt  heart,  for  the  corruption  is 
of  moral,  not  merely  intellectual  character. Thinking  godliness 


I.   TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  VI.  259 

to  be  gain — i.  e.,  a  thing  out  of  which  to  make  money.  The  trans- 
lation— "gain  is  godliness" — reverses  the  grammatical  order;  for 
godliness,  having  the  article,  is  certainly  the  subject  (nominative) 
of  the  verb.  The  true  sense  is  both  illustrated  and  confirmed  by 
Tit.  1:  11 — "Teaching  things  they  ought  not,  for  filthy  lucre's 
sake  " — which  means — trying  to  make  money  out  of  their  relig- 
ious teaching. The  clause — "from  such,  withdraw  thyself  " — 

is  omitted  by  the  best  textual  authorities.  The  thought  is  suffi- 
ciently implied  without  being  expressed. 

6.  But  godliness  with  contentment  is  great  gain. 

7.  For  we  brought  nothing  into  this  world,  and  it  is  cer- 
tain we  can  carry  nothing  out. 

8.  And  having  food  and  raiment,  let  us  be  therewith 
content. 

The  sentiment — Godliness  is  gain — in  the  sense  of  those  who 
teach  otherwise  (v.  3)  is  abominable;  but  in  the  Christian  sense 
— adding  to  godliness  contentment,  it  is  great  gain — among  the 
richest  and  grandest  acquisitions  possible  to  mortals  here  below. 
Of  course,  the  contentment  looks  toward  the  life  that  now  is  ;  not 
that  which  is  to  come ;  and  assumes  that  the  Christian's  supply 
of  this  world's  good  may  be  very  limited — so  limited  that  there 
will  be  ample  room  often  for  the  grace  of  contentment  with  little. 
But  he  has  no  need  to  lay  up  worldly  good  for  a  future  life,  since 
he  must  go  out  of  this  world  as  naked  as  he  came — a  sentiment 
ancient  as  Job  (1  :  21).  Food  and  raiment  are,  to  all,  the  staples 
for  real  and  necessary  use ;  having  these,  let  the  Christian  rest 
from  anxious  t3are  in  the  repose  of  content. 

9.  But  they  that  will  be  rich  fall  into  temptation  and  a 
snare,  and  i7ito  many  foolish  and  hurtful  lusts,  which  drown 
men  in  destruction  and  perdition. 

10.  For  the  love  of  money  is  the  root  of  all  evil :  which 
while  some  coveted  after,  they  have  erred  from  the  faith, 
and  pierced  themselves  through  with  many  sorrows. 

"  Will  be  rich  "  with  strong  emphasis  upon  "will "  which  trans- 
lates not  a  future  tense,  but  an  intensive  verb  to  express  an  ear- 
nest passion — a  strong  and  persistent  will — to  get  rich. In  the 

phrase — "  The  love  of  money  is  the  root  of  all  evil,"  the  Greek 
word  for  "root"  has  not  the  article  expressed,  and  therefore 
leaves  the  question  whether  it  should  be  supplied,  somewhat  in 
doubt.  Without  the  article  Paul  would  say  only — is  a  root  of  all 
sorts  of  evil,  but  would  not  affirm  it  to  be  strictly  the  root  of  all 

existing  evils. Moreover,  it  deserves  attention  that  the  Greek 

word  for  "  all  evil "  may  very  probably  mean,  not  the  sum  total 
of  all  possible  evils,  but — taken  extensively  rather  than  intensively 
— all  sorts  of  evil;  evils  of  every  class. 

"  Coveting  after  "  the  love  of  money  is  deficient  in  precision.  We 
obviate  the  difficulty,  either  by  assuming  that  the  "  coveting  after  " 


260  I.    TIMOTHY. — CHAP.    VI. 

— [reaching  forth  eagerly  to  attain]  is  said  of  the  money  rather 
than  of  the  love  of  it,  or  by  taking  the  word  for  "  coveting  "  in 
the  sense  of  giving  indulgence  to  the  passion — to  the  love  itself — 

of  money  acquisition. So  doing,  men  err  from  the  faith — are 

seduced  away  from  their  piety  and  their  God, "  Many  sor- 
rows " — not  least  among  which  are  the  pangs  of  a  torturing  con- 
science over  the  folly  of  making  a  wreck  of  man's  nobler  powers 
— very  commonly,  the  wreck  of  principle  and  of  morals. 

11.  But  thou,  O  man  of  God,  flee  these  things;  and  fol- 
low after  righteousness,  godliness,  faith,  love,  patience,  meek- 
ness. 

12.  Fight  the  good  fight  of  faith,  lay  hold  on  eternal  life, 
whereunto  thou  art  also  called,  and  hast  professed  a  good 
profession  before  many  witnesses. 

The  address — "O  thou  man  of  God  " — is  at  once  pertinent  and 
strong.  How  could  "a  man  of  God"  allow  himself  to  be 
ensnared  into  such  lusts  and  such  a  wreck  of  ruin  !  O  how  much 
nobler  is  the  life  set  before  him  as  a  man  of  God !  What  graces 
of  character,  jewels  far  above  gold;  treasures  that  will  not  be 
left  behind  when  men  pass  from  this  world  to  the  next !  What 
objects  to  be  attained — sublime  beyond  conception — "  eternal  life," 
in  the  sense  of  unutterable,  ever-enduring  blessedness!  Let  him 
lay  hold  of  it ;  realize  that  God  calls  him  to  it,  and  that  he  has 
pledged  himself  to  supreme  devotion  to  this  high  pursuit — this 
really  glorious  attainment! 

Note  the  logic  that  puts  such  acquisitions  over  against  the  love 
and  the  labor  for  money  with  its  perils  and  its  curses — its  bitter 
pangs  and  its  making  of  human  life  a  real  and  a  terrible  failure ! 

13.  I  give  thee  charge  in  the  sight  of  God,  who  quicken- 
eth  all  things,  and  before  Christ  Jesus,  who  before  Pontius 
Pilate  witnessed  a  good  confession ; 

14.  That  thou  keep  tJiis  commandment  without  spot,  un- 
rebukable,  until  the  appearing  of  our  Lord  tTesus  Christ: 

15.  Which  in  his  times  he  shall  show,  ivho  is  the  blessed 
and  only  Potentate,  the  King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords; 

16.  Who  only  hath  immortality,  dwelling  in  the  light 
which  no  man  can  approach  unto  ;  whom  no  man  hath  seen, 
nor  can  see:  to  whom  be  honor  and  power  everlasting. 
Amen. 

This  charge,  already  exceedingly  solemn,  is  sCill  heightened  and 
its  solemnity  made  almost  awfully  impressive,  l)y  l)ringing  the 
whole  scene — himself  and  his  dear  sf)n  Timothy — into  that  most 
august  Presence  of  tlic  Infinite  and  Kvcr-])Iessc(l  God — whose  per- 
fections are  here  brought  to  view  and  not  least  his  relati(ms 
to  his  glorious  Son,  our  Savior  and  our  Final  Judge,  "(rod 
who  quickciielh  all  tilings"  should  be — who  npholdcih  all  things 


I.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  VI.  261 

in  the  bein^;  he  has  given  them.  The  usage  of  the  verb  *  is 
entirely  decisive  in  favor  of  the  sense — uphold  in  life — rather 
than — give  life.  The  cases  of  its  usage  in  the  New  Testament 
are — "Whosoever  will  lose  his  life  shall  preserve  it"  (Luke  17: 
33);  "cast  out  their  infants  so  that  they  might  not  live  " — (have 
their  life  preserved)  (Acts  7 :  19).  Old  Testament  cases  (Septua- 
gint)  may  be  seen  in  Exodus  1  :  17  and  Judges  8:  19.  The 
thought  of  God  as  the  universal  Preserver  of  all,  whose  all- 
sustaining  arm  Timothy  had  need  of  under  his  vast  responsibili- 
ties, is  specially  pertinent  here. "  That  thou  keep  this  com- 
mandment,   stainless,  above  possible  reproach  " — i.  e.,  in  perfect 

obedience. "  Until  the  appearing  of  our  Lord  " — as  ifthj  work 

were  to  hold  on  until  that  august  appearing — all  the  days  work- 
ing on  with  that  coming  in  thine  eye  as  near  at  hand.  It  can  not 
be  disputed  that  Paul  and  his  fellow-apostles  accustomed  them- 
selves to  think  of  that  stupendous  coming  as  in  some  sense  very 
near. 

But  it  is  equally  beyond  dispute  that  a  sense  of  nearness  may 
make  no  special  account  of  calendar  time.  The  "great  day  of 
the  Lord  "  as  seen  by  Old  Testament  prophets — when  they  spake 
of  the  fall  of  Babylon  or  of  similar  events — was  always  "  near  at 
hand,"  though  as  in  Isaiah  (13:  6)  of  the  fall  of  Babylon,  the 
event  was  three  centuries  in  calendar  distance.  (See  also  Joel 
2:  1  and  3:  14  and  Obadiah  15.) 

Events  of  absorbing  interest  and  overwhelming  magnitude  are 
brought  near  to  human  thought  and  sense  by  their  very  vastness 
and  by  the  thrilling  interest  they  inspire.  Under  this  law  of 
mind,  a  guilty  and  convicted  sinner  comes  to  feel  that  hell  is 
sensibly  near — so  near  that  he  would  not  be  surprised  if  it  should 
open  suddenly  beneath  his  feet !  On  the  same  principle,  heaven 
and  its  exalted  King  may  seem  consciously  very  near  to  one 
whose  heart  is  there.  Under  this  law  of  mind  the  apostles  seem 
to  have  spoken  of  Christ's  coming  as  near — yet  remarkably 
ignoring  all  measurements  and  conceptions  of  calendar  time.  For 
when  Paul  comes  to  face  the  definite  idea  of  time,  in  reference 
to  Christ's  coming,  he  sees  a  great  apostasy  between  that  coming 
and  the  present  hour  (2  Thess.  2 :  1-12),  and  also  (Rom.  11 :  25- 
27)  the  conversion  not  of  the  Jews  only  but  "  the  fullness  of  the 
Gentiles."  These  events  made  large  demands  for  intervening  tijne 
before  the  end  could  come.  Yet  this  real  knowledge  of  interven- 
ing time  did  not  rule  out  from  the  mind  a  practical  sense  of  Christ's 
coming  as  near. 

The  "appearing"  here  (Greek  Epiphany)  is  unquestionably 
Christ's  second  advent.  (See  the  usage  of  this  word  in  notes  on 
2  Thess.  2:8.)  Ellicott  refers  to  De  Wette  and  others  as  finding 
in  this  passage  positive  proof  that  Paul  believed  the  advent  near 
in  time;  but  for  himself  remarks — "  It  may  perhaps  be  admitted 
that  the  sacred  writers  have  used  language  in  reference  to  their 
Lord's  return  which  seems  to  show  that  the  longings  of  hope  had 

■JO  *  ^uoyoveo). 


262  I.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.   VI. 

almost  become  the  convictions  of  belief;  yet  it  must  also  be 
observed  that  (as  in  the  present  case)  this  language  is  often 
qualified  by  expressions  which  show  that  they  felt  and  knew  that 
that  hour  was  not  to  be  looked  for  immediately  (2  Thess.  2 :  2), 
but  that  the  counsels  of  God  and  the  machinations  of  Satan  must 
require  time  for  their  "  development." 

This  appearing  in  its  proper  time  He  shall  cause  to  be  seen — 
making  it  sublimely  manifest  before  the  universe — even  He  who 
is  the  i31essed  and  only  Potentate — the  supreme  source  of  all  power 
and  dominion : — who  only  hath  immortal  being  and  is  the  Fount- 
ain of  being  to  all  else  that  exists.  That  He  dwells  in  light 
unapproachable,  evermore  invisible  in  person  to  created  eyes,  is 
the  doctrine  of  the  Old  Testament  as  also  of  the  New.  (Ex.  33  : 
20;  Deut.  4:  12;  John  1:^  18  and  1  John  4:  12.)  As  to  the 
invisibility  of  God,  the  scriptural  doctrine  seems  to  be — not  that 
all  manifestation  of  his  personal  being  is  shut  off  by  interposed 
authority  as  that  it  is  naturally  impossible  ;  that  our  senses  have 
no  powers  adapted  to  take  cognizance  of  the  essential  being  of 
God. 

17.  Charge  them  that  are  rich  in  this  world,  that  they  be 
not  high-minded,  nor  trust  in  uncertain  riches,  but  in  the 
living  God,  who  giveth  us  richly  all  things  to  enjoy ; 

18.  That  they  do  good,  that  they  be  rich  in  good  works, 
ready  to  distribute,  willing  to  communicate ; 

19.  Laying  up  in  store  for  themselves  a  good  foundation 
against  the  time  to  come,  that  they  may  lay  hold  on  eternal 
life. 

From  being  caught  up  and  borne  away  by  most  sublime  con- 
ceptions of  the  ever  glorious  God,  Paul  now  returns  to  finish  hia 
charge  to  Timothy  in  respect  to  the  rich ; — against  pride — to 
which  wealth  exposes  the  heart  of  man ;  against  trust  in  the  un- 
certainty of  riches — as  if  there  were  nothing  better  than  dim  un- 
certainty there.  Rather  let  them  trust  in  God  (the  better  text 
omits  "living"),  but  adds — who  gives  us  every  thing  richly  to 
enjoy.  Hence  let  the  rich  remember  their  Divine  Benefactor  and 
their  own  resulting  obligation  to  do  good  with  their  wealth,  and 
to  be  rich — not  in  hoarded  gold,  but  in  good  works  and  in  the  re- 
acting blessedness  thereof.  So  may  they  provide  themselves  a 
good  foundation  and  firm  standing  from  which  they  may  lay  hold 
upon  eternal  life:  for  apart  from  such  footing,  how  hardly  shall 
the  rich  man  enter  that  kingdom! 

In  the  lust  clause  of  v.  19  the  corrected  text  has,  not  "  eternal," 
but  real  life. 

20.  O  Timothy,  keep  that  which  is  committed  to  thy 
trust,  avoiding  profane  and  vain  babblings,  and  oppositions 
of  science  falsely  so  called : 


I.    TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  VI.  263 

21.  AVhich  some  professing  have  erred  concerning  the 
faith.     Grace  be  with  thee.     Amen. 

This  clause  is  purposely  comprehensive  of  the  great  points  of 
this  epistle.     The  allusion  to  things  to  be  shunned  leads  us  back 

to  chap.   1:    3-7. Those   new  and   dangerous  doctrines  had 

already  ensnared  some ;  let  him  use  every  endeavor  to  arrest  this 
delusion,  that  no  more  be  seduced  to  their  ruin. 


SECOND  EPISTLE  TO   TIMOTHY. 


INTEODUCTION. 

Internal  evidence  makes  it  clear  that  this  epistle  was 
written  by  Paul  from  his  prison-cell  at  Rome  (1 :  16)  where 
Onesiphorus  found  him;  "oft  refreshed  him,  and  was  not 
ashamed  of  his  chain."  It  was  after  his  first  hearing  before 
the  court,  which  seems  to  have  been  in  part  successful. 
He  says  of  it — "The  Lord  stood  with  me  and  strengthened 
me,  that  by  me  the  preaching  might  be  fully  known ;  and 
I  was  delivered  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  lion."  But  at  the 
point  of  this  writing  it  would  seem  that  the  final  and  fatal 
decision  had  been  reached,  for  he  said — "  I  am  ready  to  be 
offered" — literally,  I  am  already  being  poured  out,  i.  e.,  as 
a  libation  in  the  well-known  drink-offering;  "and  my  de- 
parture is  at  hand"  (4:  6).  Yet  he  did  not  anticipate  the 
execution  immediately,  for  he  begs  Timothy  to  come  to  him 
shortly  and  before  winter  (4:  9,  21).  The  testimony  of  the 
early  church  fathers  places  the  date  of  his  martyrdom  in 
the  spring  of  A.  D.  68.  That  Timothy  was  then  still  at 
Ephesus  is  on  the  whole  probable. 

As  to  the  special  occasion  and  object  of  this  epistle,  it 
does  not  appear  that  any  new  issue  had  been  sprung  upon 
Timothy  at  Epliesus,  or  that  Paul  had  heard  any  thing  from 
him  which  called  for  definite  reply.  The  same  nascent 
heresies  still  gave  Paul  anxiety,  and  occasioned  several 
special  exhortations — ^^which  however  are  not  essentially  un- 
like what  he  had  said  in  his  first  letter. 

In  the  absence  of  other  data,  judging  from  the  epistle 
itself,  we  may  assume  that  the  occasion  for  this  letter  was 
largely  subjective  to  Paul  himself — existing  in  his  own  cir- 
cumstances and  consequent  state  of  mind.  His  affectionate 
heart  was  smarting  under  the  apostasy  of  some  whom  he 
had    loved — Demas    (4:    10);    apparently,    Phygellus   and 

(2(il) 


INTRODUCTION.  265 

Hermogenes,  and  all  those  in  Asia,  we  know  not  how  many 
(1 :  15) ;  Tychicus  he  had  sent  to  Ephesus  (4 :  12) ;  Tro- 
phimus  he  had  left  at  Miletum  sick  (4 :  20)  ;  and  in  fact, 
only  Luke  remained  with  him  (4 :  11).  So  solitary,  so 
nearly  alone  in  these  trying  days,  it  was  one  source  of  com- 
fort that  he  could  call  to  mind  the  unfeigned  faith  of 
Timothy  and  of  his  ancestry.  Yet  not  altogether  satisfied 
with  mere  reminiscences,  he  greatly  longed  to  see  him. 
It  was  the  cry  of  his  heart's  love.  Though  the  remembrance 
of  Timothy's  tears  filled  him  with  joy,  yet  Paul  was  human. 
It  was  on  his  human  side  that  this  felt  want  of  Timothy's 
presence  sprung  up  and  became  so  strong.  It  was  not  that 
his  heart,  Godward,  was  sad  or  despondent,  or  lacked  the 
rich  and  sweet  consolations  of  the  gospel.  In  all  his  copious 
correspondence  Ave  nowhere  see  his  soul  tower  up  into  more 
sublime  assurance,  or  repose  in  sweeter  confidence  and  more 
placid  trust.  But  all  this  did  not  supersede  his  human  sym- 
pathies. Apparently  it  did  not  sensibly  lessen  the  deep 
longings  of  his  heart  to  see  Timothy  face  to  face  and  com- 
municate with  him  as  a  kindred  spirit  in  these  last  scenes  of 
his  earthly  pilgrimage. 

Did  he  also  feel— perhaps  he  did — that  it  would  be  a  joy 
to  pour  out  upon  the  sympathetic  soul  of  this  dear  disciple 
and  fellow-laborer  his  own  glorious  anticipations  of  heavenly 
rest  and  talk  with  him  face  to  face  of  the  good  fight  he 
had  fought,  of  the  race-course  he  had  run  and  so  nearly 
finished,  and  of  the  crown  of  righteousness  laid  up  for  him 
in  the  world  beyond? 

However  this  may  be,  it  was  more  than  pardonable  in 
Paul  to  have  some  last  and  earnest  longings  to  breathe  forth 
his  great  heart  once  more  upon  the  sympathetic  heart  of  this 
beloved  son,  not  merely  for  sympathy's  sake,  but  in  the  un- 
conscious feeling  that  he  might  thus  bequeath  more  of  him- 
self— more  of  his  own  sublime  faith  and  holy  zeal  for  Christ 
— into  the  receptive  soul  of  his  son  in  the  faith. 

Moreover,  it  may  be  suggested  that,  in  the  uncertainty 
of  all  human  and  earthly  events,  Paul  could  not  be  very 
sure  of  seeing  Timothy  again,  and  therefore  might  realize 
more  deeply  the  importance  of  transferring  as  best  he 
might,  to  paper  these  deep  thoughts  and  impassioned  long- 
ings and  outflowing  sympathies,  coupled  with  counsels 
and  exhortations,  as  his  last  legacy  to  his  best  earthly 
friend ! 

Well,  whether  we  have  fathomed   truly  and  adequately 


266  INTRODUCTION. 

the  heart  reasons  for  this  letter  to  Timothy,  we  may  afford 
a  tribute  of  grateful  thanks  to  God  that  his  Spirit  moved 
Paul  to  write  this  precious  epistle  and  his  good  providence 
took  all  the  care  needful  to  preserve  it  for  all  these  future 
ages. 


SECOND  EPISTLE  TO  TIMOTHY. 


CHAPTER  I. 


A  brief  introduction  (v.  1,  2);  thanks  to  God  for  such  precious 
reminiscences  of  Timothy's  faith,  whom  he  longs  to  see  (v.  3-5) ; 
reminds  him  to  stir  up  his  ministerial  gifts  (v.  6,  7) ;  to  be  bold 
in  the  face  of  persecution  for  the  gospel's  sake  (v.  8),  in  view  of 
what  this  gospel  is  and  is  doing  (v.  9-11);  for  which  Paul  has 
suffered,  yet  with  glorious  consolations  (v.  12) ;  exhorts  to  hold 
fast  the  gospel  doctrine  and  his  sj^iritual  gifts  (v.  13,  14)  •  apos- 
tasy of  those  in  Asia  (v,  15) ;  over  against  which  stands  the  ten- 
der sympathy  and  refreshing  aid  of  Onesiphorus,  for  whom  he 
prays  (v.  16-18). 

1.  Paul,  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ  by  the  will  of  God, 
according  to  the  promise  of  life  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus, 

2.  To  Timothy,  my  dearly  beloved  son ;  Grace,  mercy,  and 
peace,  from  God  the  Father  and  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. 

The  nice  point  of  interpretation  in  v.  1  is  the  sense  of  the 
preposition  translated  "  according  to  "  *  before  **  promise  of  life." — 
"  According  to  "  does  not  express  the  sense  well.  It  looks  toward 
Paul's  apostleship,  giving  its  object  and  purpose,  and  saying  that 
he  was  made  an  apostle  with  reference  to  that  promise  of  life 
which  came  to  men  through  Christ  Jesus.  For  the  interests  and 
purposes  of  this  "promise" — to  preach  the  gospel  of  this  glorious 
promise — he  was  made  an  apostle. 

3.  I  thank  God,  wliom  I  serve  from  my  forefathers  with 
pure  conscience,  that  without  ceasing  I  have  remembrance 
of  thee  in  my  prayers  night  and  day ; 

4.  Greatly  desiring  to  see  thee,  being  mindful  of  thy 
tears,  that  I  may  be  filled  with  joy ; 

5.  When  I  call  to  remembrance  the  unfeigned  faith  that 
is  in  thee,  which  dwelt  first  in  thy  grandmother  Lois,  and 
thy  mother  Eunice ;  and  I  am  persuaded  that  in  thee  also. 

•'  Serve  with  my  forefathers,"  for  his  Pharisaic  ancestors  were, 
we  may  suppose,  very  conscientious  in  their  way,  under  the  light 

*  Kara. 

(267) 


268  II.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.    I. 

of  Judaism.  But  the  qualifying  words,  "  with  a  pure  conscience," 
may  quietly  suiii^est  that  his  Ciiristian  conscience  was  more  pure 
than  theirs,  adjusted  to  a  purer  light  and  to  a  higher  sense  of 
what  moral  }nirity  is. — "That  without  ceasing  1  remember  thee," 
etc.— a  translation  which  assumes  that  tliis  unceasing  remem- 
brance is  the  very  thing  for  which  he  thanks  God.  This  is  neither 
pertinent  as  to  its  sense  nor  well  sustained  by  the  usage  of  the 
Greek  particle  translated  "that."  ^  Better  thus:  "I  thank  God, 
as  [inasmuch  as]  without  ceasing  I  make  mention  of  thee  in  my 
prayers,  having  remembrance  of  thy  unfeigned  faith,"  etc.  (v.  5); 
the  blessing  foi-  which  he  thanks  God  being  this,  that  in  his  daily 
prayer  for  Timothy,  he  is  reminded  afresh  of  his  pure,  unhypo- 
critical  faith.  It  is  indeed  a  blessing  to  be  thankful  for  that  every 
remembrance  of  this  dear  son  brings  up  his  faith.  Paul  makes 
a  long  sentence,  as  is  his  wont,  by  interweaving  collateral  points 
suggested  in  rapid  succession;  but  the  ultimate  thought  I  take  to 

be  as  here  explained. That  Paul  should  long  exceedingly  to 

see  a  dear  son  in  the  faith,  whose  sympathetic  soul  was  so  fully 
in  unison  with  his  own,  the  remembrance  of  whose  tears  always 
filled  his  soul  with  joy,  is  by  no  means  surprising,  especially  con- 
sidering his  own  painful  solitude  in  his  prison  cell  under  the 
absence  of  so  many  of  his  dearest  friends.  That  this  precious 
ftxith  dwelt  first  in  time  in  his  grandmother  and  next  in  his  mother, 
and  then  in  the  son,  is  beautifully  suggestive:  (1.)  That  faith  so 
naturally  descends  as  a  legacy — an  inheritance— from  parent  to 
child,  easily  transmissible  "under  the  laws  of  our  social  nature  ; 
and,  (2.)  That  this  inheritance  runs  more  often  in  the  maternal 
line  than  in  the  paternal — through  mothers  more  than  through 
fathers — a  fact  due  perhaps  to  the  closer  relationship  that  exists 
between  mother  and  child,  and  possibly  also  to  the  more  congenial 

soil  for  piety  in  woman's  heart  than  in  man's. From  Acts  16: 

1  we  learn  that  his  mother  was  a  believing  Jewess ;  his  father  a 
Greek. 

6.  Wherefore  I  put  thee  in  remembrance,  that  thou  stir 
up  the  gift  of  God,  which  is  in  thee  by  the  putting  on  of  my 
hands. 

7.  For  God  hath  not  given  us  the  spirit  of  fear ;  but  of 
power,  and  of  love,  and  of  a  sound  mind. 

"Wherefore"  [for  which  cause] — i.  e.,  because  I  am  sure  tliy 
faith  is  genuine.  Therefore  I  now  remind  thee  to  stir  up  that 
gift,  as  fire  is  enkindled  to  greater  intensity  by  stirring.  The 
"gift"  referred  to  ["charisma"]  included  those  spiritual  endow- 
ments for  the  gosi»(d  ministry  which  came  from  the  Holy  Ghost 
in  connection  with  the  imposition  of  liands  in  ordination.  Tim- 
otliy  was,  perhaps,  de])ressed  ])y  the  imprisonment  and  probable 
martyrdom  of  his  beloved  father,  and  therefore  needed  this  re- 
minder to  re-enkindle  iiis  languid  graces,  remembering  that  tho 
spirit  God  gives   his  faithful   ministers  is  not  one  of  cowardice 


II.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.    I.  269 

["  fear"],  but  rather  of  "  power"  [almost  a  synonym  for  the  Spirit 
himself],  and  "of  love  — love  undying,  energizing,  pervading 
the  whole  moral  being;  and  "of  a  sound  mind" — a  mind  well 
balanced  and  well  under  self-control — the  last  being  vital  among 
the  endowments  of  the  Spirit,  inasmuch  as  strong  mental  excite- 
ment sometimes  disturbs  the  balance  of  the  human  mind.  Such 
disturbance,  damaging  to  the  proper  control  of  good  sense,  is 
never  a  legitimate  fruit  of  the  Spirit,  and  should  be  studiously 
avoided  as  pernicious  both  to  personal  piety  and  to  the  public  in- 
fluence of  Christianity, 

8.  Be  not  thou  therefore  ashamed  of  the  testimony  of  our 
Lord,  nor  of  me  his  prisoner :  but  be  thou  partaker  of  the 
afflictions  of  the  gospel  according  to  the  power  of  God ; 

Along  with  me  [even  as  I  do]  suffer  affliction  for  the  gospel  [in 
its  behalf]. — "According  to  the  power  of  God"  assumes  that  this 
power  of  the  Spirit  is  given  us  to  tone  up  our  Christian  courage 
to  any  endurance. 

9.  "Who  hath  saved  us,  and  called  us  with  an  holy  call- 
ing, not  according  to  our  works,  but  according  to  his  own 
purpose  and  grace,  which  was  given  us  in  Christ  Jesus  be- 
fore the  world  began; 

10.  But  is  now  made  manifest  by  the  appearing  of  our 
Savior  Jesus  Christ,  who  hath  abolished  death,  and  hath 
brought  life  and  immortality  to  light  through  the  gospel  : 

These  are  inducements  to  Christian  courage  and  to  any  extreme 
of  endurance  to  which  God  may  call  us.  Remember  him  who 
hath  saved  and  called  us  unto  holiness,  not  because  of  antecedent 
good  works  of  ours,  but  of  his  eternal  love  and  consequent  gra- 
cious purpose — older  than  time,  but  made  manifest  in  the  advent 
of  the  Son,  appearing  in  human  flesh.  This  appearing  was  his 
first  advent  when  he  wrought  the  results  here  put  in  the  words, 
"Abolished  death,"  etc.  "Death"  must  here  be  directly  anti- 
thetic to  the  "life  brought  to  light  through  the  gospel."  It  is  es- 
sentially that  empire  and  dominion  of  evil  which,  beginning  with 
sin,  involved  the  race  in  natural  death  and  its  concurrent  suffer- 
ings, not  merely  physical,  but  perhaps  more  immediately  and 
fundamentally  spiritual.  When  Jesus  came  he  smote  this  em- 
pire, breaking  its  absolute  dominion  and  bringing  in  a  reign  of 
life  and  glorious  immortality  to  bear  sway  in  full  antagonism  to 
this  antecedent  sway  of  death.  The  writer  to  the  Hebrews  (2 :  14) 
uses  this  same  Greek  word:  "That  by  means  of  death  [dying 
himself]  he  might  destroy  him  who  had  the  power  of  death — that 
is,  the  devil."  The  precise  sense  of  the  verb  ["destroy"]  *  is  to 
put  out  of  the  way ;  to  make  of  none  effect ;  to  render  inopera- 
tive.  So  life  and  immortality,  never  fully  brought  to  light  be- 
fore, are  now  revealed  in  and  through  the  gospel. 
*  Karagyecj. 


270  II.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  I. 

11.  Whereunto  I  am  appointed  a  preacher,  and  an  apostle, 
and  a  teacher  of  the  Gentiles. 

12.  For  the  which  cause  I  also  suffer  these  things :  never- 
theless I  am  not  ashamed ;  for  I  know  whom  I  have  believed, 
and  am  persuaded  that  he  is  able  to  keep  that  which  I  have 
committed  unto  him  against  that  day. 

Holding  this  commission,  I  suffer  gladly ;  I  can  not  be  ashamed ; 
for  I  know  the  unutterable  glories  of  Him  in  whom  1  trust ;  I 
have  seen  him  face  to  face  and  have  experienced  his  power  to 
save.  My  immortal  being  I  have  entrusted  to  his  keeping,  with 
never  a  fear  that  he  can  fail  me. 

13.  Hold  fast  the  form  of  sound  words,  which  thou  hast 
heard  of  me,  in  faith  and  love  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 

14.  That  good  thing  which  was  committed  unto  thee  keep 
by  the  Holy  Ghost  which  dwelleth  in  us. 

No  emphasis  should  be  laid  upon  "  form  "  as  opposed  to  sub- 
stance. Paul  refers  to  the  system  of  doctrine  which  he  had 
taught  his  son  Timothy  in  wholesome  words — words  which  well 
expressed  the  truth,  and  which,  therefore,  should  not  be  given 
up  in  exchange  for  words  less  fitting.  Hold  them  fast  in  such 
faith  and  love  as  have  their  root  and  sphere  in  Christ.  Only  so 
can  the  truth  of  the  gospel  be  conserved  in  its  purity. 

That  "  good  thing  committed  to  him  "  as  a  sacred  deposit  at 
his  ordination,  let  him  be  careful  to  keep  with  the  help  of  the 
Holy  Ghost — through  his  indwelling  presence  and  power.  Better 
counsel,  how  could  mortal  lip  or  pen  ever  give  I 

15.  This  thou  knowest,  that  all  they  which  are  in  Asia  be 
turned  away  from  me ;  of  whom  are  Phygellus  and  Hermog- 
enes. 

This  turning  away  (it  should  be  noticed)  was  from  Paul — in  the 
sense  apparently  of  forsaking  him  in  his  hour  of  greatest  need.  It 
may  have  been  the  same  or  only  a  similar  forsaking  as  that 
referred  to  in  4  :  16  below.  Of  the  fact  here  referred  to,  we  have 
no  other  history.  It  lay  heavily  on  Paul's  already  burdened  licart. 
The  two  men  named  are  not  otherwise  known  to  us,  though 
doubtless  they  were  to  Timothy. 

16.  The  Lord  give  mercy  unto  the  house  of  Onesiphorus; 
for  he  oft  refreshed  me,  and  was  not  ashamed  of  my  chain: 

17.  But,  when  he  was  in  Rome,  he  sought  me  out  very 
diligently,  and  found  vie. 

18.  The  Lord  grant  unto  him  that  he  may  find  mercy  of 
the  Lord  in  that  day  :  and  in  how  many  things  he  minis- 
tered unto  me  at  Epiiesus,  thou  knowest  very  well. 


II.    TIMOTHY. CHAP.    II.  271 

This  Onesiphorus,  named  only  here  and  in  4 :  19,  was  appar- 
ently a  resident  of  Ephesus,  but  happening  to  be  in  Rome  during 
Paul's  imprisonment,  he  took  special  pains  to  find  him  and  to 
minister  kindly  to  his  wants — in  no  wise  ashamed  to  show  his 
interest  in  a  man  in  irons  as  a  malefactor.  In  touching  words 
Paul  prays  that  he  may  find  mercy  in  his  own  day  of  utmost 
need ! 

The  critics  notice  that  in  each  passage  (1 :  16  and  4 :  19)  Paul 
wrote — "to  the  house" — in  the  sense  of  household,  and  not  to 
him  only.  Whether  this  means  blessings  on  his  family  for  his 
sake,  or  for  their  own  sake  as  in  spirit  with  their  father — we  are 
free  to  our  own  opinion.  But  the  notion  that  the  father — Paul's 
benefactor — was  at  this  time  dead,  and  that  Paul  prayed  for  his 
soul  after  his  death,  is  a  wild  and  far-fetched  fancy  which  must 
labor  hard  for  any  plausible  support. 


>>CKo 


CHAPTER    II. 

Sundry  exhortations — to  be  strong  in  grace  (v.  1);  to  train 
other  men  to  teach  the  same  truths  (v.  2)  ;  to  endure  hardship  as 
a  true  soldier  of  Christ  and  do  faithful  service  for  him  (v.  3-7) ; 
to  remember  his  risen  Savior ;  also  that  suffering  even  to  death 
for  him  can  never  fail  of  its  reward  (v.  8-13) ;  to  shun  profitless 
logomachy ;  to  present  the  truth  wisely  for  the  purposes  of  right- 
eousness (v.  14, 15) ;  more  against  vain  babblings  and  their  results 
(v.  16-18);  but  the  church  and  truth  of  God  are  safe  and  sure 
(v.  19) ;  how  to  have  honor  therein  (v.  20,  21);  personal  counsels 
(v.  22,  23) ;  how  to  treat  opposers  (v.  24-26). 

1.  Thou  therefore,  my  son,  be  strong  in  the  grace  that  is 
in  Christ  Jesus. 

Be  thou  strengthened  [made  strong]  in  and  by  means  of  that 
grace  [moral  support]  which  comes  through  Christ  Jesus. 

2.  And  the  things  that  thou  hast  heard  of  me  among 
many  witnesses,  the  same  commit  thou  to  faithful  men,  who 
shall  be  able  to  teach  others  also. 

"The  things  thou  hast  heard  of  me,"  etc.,  may  allude  to  the 
embodied  presentation  of  the  gospel  to  Timothy  at  his  ordination. 
That,  we  may  suppose,  was  in  the  presence  of  ["  among"]  many 
Avitnesses.  An  allusion  to  Timothy's  ordination  charge  and  to  the 
truths  then  made  prominent  would  be  specially  pertinent  in  this 
connection.    Let  him  transmit  the  truths,  then  put  in  his  keeping, 


272  II.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.    II. 

to  faithful  men  that  they  may  teach  yet  others.  Thus  let  the  gos- 
pel word  pass  down  through  successive  generations  of  faithful, 
competent  teachers. 

3.  Thou  therefore  endure  hardness,  as  a  good  soldier  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

4.  No  man  that  warreth  entangleth  himself  with  the  affairs 
of  this  life ;  that  he  may  please  him  who  hath  chosen  him  to 
be  a  soldier. 

5.  And  if  a  man  also  strive  for  masteries,  yet  is  he  not 
crowned,  except  he  strive  lawfully. 

6.  The  husbandman  that  laboreth  must  be  first  partaker 
of  the  fruits. 

7.  Consider  what  I  say ;  and  the  Lord  give  thee  under- 
standing in  all  things. 

"Endure  hardness"  is  in  itself  expressive;  but  the  most 
approved  text  includes  yet  another  idea — that  of  fellowship,  asso- 
ciation, with  the  writer,  Paul.  Do  thou  jointly  with  me,  endure 
suffering  as  a  good  soldier  of  Christ.  No  man  who  enters  the 
army,  becoming  a  soldier  for  his  country,  encumbers  himself  with 
other  worldly  business — never  thinks  of  filling  another  profession 
— that  he  may  please  him  who  enrolls  and  accepts  him  as  a  sol- 
dier. So  also,  if  one  enters  the  lists  of  contest  for  the  prize,  he 
will  have  no  crown  unless  he  conforms  to  the  rules  in  all  such 
cases  provided.  The  laboring  husbandman  must  first  share  the 
fruit.  His  very  toil  gives  him  the  prior  claim — a  principle  which 
the  Great  Lord  of  the  harvest  can  never  forget. 

8.  Remember  that  Jesus  Christ  of  the  seed  of  David 
Avas  raised  from  the  dead,  according  to  my  gospel : 

9.  Wherein  I  suffer  trouble,  as  an  evil-doer,  even  unto 
bonds ;  but  the  word  of  God  is  not  bound. 

Tt  is  often  refreshing  to  recall  these  two  facts  pertaining  to 
Jesus  Christ :  {a)  his  real  human  nature,  as  of  the  seed  of  David; 
and  {h)  his  resurrection  from  the  dead — in  which  lie  garnered 

many  glorious  hopes. Tn  ])ohalf  of  this  gospel  I  suffer  aflliction  as 

if  1  were  a  malefactor — a  real  criminal  against  society — even  to  the 
extent  of  being  ])ound  in  chains  : — but,  to  my  great  joy,  God's 
word  is  not  })ound.  The  gospel  travels  on  in  its  majestic  freedom 
and  strength,  though  I  am  hold  in  my  prison-cell!  To  the  noble 
heart  of  Paul,  this  was  a  living  joy. 

10.  Therefore  I  endure  all  things  for  the  elect's  sake,  that 
they  may  also  obtain  the  salvation  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus 
with  eternal  glory. 

11.  It  vi  ?L  faithful  saying:  For  if  we  be  dead  with  him, 
we  shall  also  live  with  him : 


II.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.    II.  273 

12.  If  we  suffer,  we  shall  also  reign  with  him  :  if  we  deny 
/wm,  he  also  will  deny  us : 

13.  If  we  believe  not,  yet  he  abideth  faithful :  he  can  not 
deny  himself. 

Suffering  and  dying  with  Christ  are  here  in  their  literal  rather 
than  their  spiritual  sense,  having  reference  to  persecution  and 
martyrdom,  and  not  specially  to  dying  unto  sin  in  the  sense  then 
common  with  Paul  in  other  connections.  Of  course  Paul  assumes 
that  this  suffering  and  dying  for  Christ  are  in  sincere  love  and 
fidelity.  Then  they  insure  this  reward.  His  eye  may  have  been 
upon  those  words  of  Christ  (Luke  12 :  8,  9) ;  "  Whosoever  shall 
confess  me  before  men,  him  shall  the  Son  of  man  also  confess 
before  the  angels  of  God ;  but  he  that  denieth  me  before  men 
shall  be  denied  before  the  angels  of  God." 

14.  Of  these  things  put  them  in  remembrance,  charging 
them  before  the  Lord  that  they  strive  not  about  words  to  no 
profit,  but  to  the  subverting  of  the  hearers. 

15.  Study  to  shew  thyself  approved  unto  God,  a  work- 
man that  needeth  not  to  be  ashamed,  rightly  dividing  the 
word  of  truth. 

These  admonitions  against  word-strifes,  logomachies,  hair- 
splitting distinctions — tending  to  no  profit  whatever ;  degenerating 
even  to  "  profane  and  vain  babblings," — enable  us  to  reproduce 
the  men  described — men  of  subtle  mind,  of  ambitious  spirit,  mak- 
ing religious  teaching  their  profession ;  struggling  for  distinction 
in  this  line;  compassing  sea  and  land  to  make  proselytes; — but 
as  to  any  true  piety,  heartless  and  barren,  and  consequently  per- 
nicious to  the  full  extent  of  their  social  and  intellectual  power. 

All  unlike  them,  let  Timothy  labor  to  approve  himself — not 

before  and  unto  men,  but  toward  and  unto  God — a  workman  never 

to  be  put  to  shame. "Dividing  rightly  the  word  of  truth" — 

not  (as  our  translation  might  suggest)  in  the  sense  of  carving  it 
out  in  due  portions;  but  more  nearly  in  the  sense  of  Paul's  verb 
— cutting  a  strait  path  morally — using  gospel   truth   wisely    to 

raise  up  a  highway  of  holiness. The  context  puts  this  advice 

to  Timothy  in  contrast  with  the  striving  about  words,  to  no  profit 
but  only  to  the  subverting  of  the  hearers.  On  the  contrary  let 
him  make  the  word  of  truth  in  his  lips  bear  toward  an  upright 
life  in  the  straight  line  of  righteousness. 

16.  But  shun  profane  and  vain  babblings:  for  they  will 
increase  unto  more  ungodliness. 

17.  And  their  word  will  eat  as  doth  a  canker:  of  whom 
is  Hymeneus  and  Philetus ; 

18.  Who  concerning  the  truth  have  erred,  saying  that  the 
resurrection  is  past  already;  and  overthrow  the  faith  of 
some. 


274  II.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  II. 

"Babblings"  over  what  professes  to  be  the  truth  of  God,  work 
only  unto  more  ungodliness,  the  virus  perpetuating  itself  and 
spreading  like  a  gangrene  in  the  human  body.  An  illustrative 
case  is  given — of  men  who  hold  that  "  the  resurrection  is  past 
already'  — which  of  course  carries  with  it  the  denial  of  a  future 
resurrection,  and  indeed  of  any  resurrection  whatever  in  its  true 
sense.  By  what  perversions  of  God's  word  they  managed  to  dis- 
pose of  the  doctrine  of  a  future  resurrection  of  the  body,  Paul 
deemed  it  of  no  importance  to  explain ;  for  such  vain  babblings 
never  pay  for  the  repeating.  It  need  not  be  assumed  that  they 
had  either  logic  or  sense  in  their  teachings.  But  it  was  sad  that 
they  should  "overthrow  the  faith  of  some." 

19.  Nevertheless  the  foundation  of  God  standetli  sure, 
having  this  seal,  The  Lord  knoweth  them  that  are  his. 
And,  Let  everyone  that  nameth  the  name  of  Christ  depart 
from  iniquity. 

20.  But  in  a  great  house  there  are  not  only  vessels  of 
gold  and  of  silver,  but  also  of  wood  and  of  earth;  and  some 
to  honor,  and  some  to  dishonor. 

21.  If  a  man  therefore  purge  himself  from  these,  he  shall 
be  a  vessel  unto  honor,  sanctified,  and  meet  for  the  master's 
use,  mid  prepared  unto  every  good  work. 

Yet  such  teaching,  though  ruinous  to  the  faith  of  some  supposed 
to  be  believers,  can  by  no  means  overturn  "  the  foundation  of 

God.'*     This  "standeth  sure." But,  in  its  precise  idea,  what 

is  this  "foundation  of  God?" It  seems  to  involve  these  two 

closely  related  elements;  the  true  church,  and  the  gospel  system 
of  truth : — perhaps  Ave  may  say — the  church  as  the  living  em- 
bodiment and  divinely  ordained  conservator  of  the  gospel.  The 
sentiment  is  essentially  that  which  Paul  has  (1  Tim.  3:  15) — 
"  The  house  of  God  which  is  the  church  of  the  living  God — the 

2?illar  and  ground  of  the  truth.'' This  sense  of  the  words  is 

in  harmony  with  the  foregoing  context — viz.,  "the  seal"  which 
this  foundation  bears ;  and  also  with  the  following  context — the 
allusion  to  "  the  great  house"  and  its  various  furniture.  The  an- 
tecedent context  puts  this  foundation  in  contrast  with  the  over- 
thrown faith  of  misled,  seduced  men. The  two  elements  of  the 

"  seal"  which  both  identify  and  secure  this  "  foundation  of  God," 
are  (a.)  On  the  divine  side,  that  the  Lord  knoweth  his  own,  and 
will  shield  them  against  being  seduced  fundamentally  and  fa- 
tally; so  that — so  shielded — both  his  truth  and  his  church  shall 
surely  stand  in  glory  and  in  strength:  and  (h.)  On  the  human 
side,  this  one  supreme  law  must  bear  sway  ; — Whoever  takes 
Christ's  name  upon  hiinself  must  eschew  all  iniquity.  Only  as 
the  church  stands  to  her  moral  purity  can  she  ]je  the  pillar  and 

ground   of  the  truth. Thus  with  (Jod   on  the  Godward   side 

shielding  his  own  ;  and  his  people  on  the  human  side,  holding  all 
truth  in  righteousness  and  living  it  forth  in  their  godly  lives,  the 


II.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  II.  275 

church  and  in  it  the  eternal  truth  of  God,  are  forever  sure. In 

a  great  house  there  are  all  sorts  of  vessels — some  of  gold,  some  of 
earth;  some  for  the  noblest  and  some  for  the  humblest  use.  Now 
if  a  man  purge  himself  from  all  errors — imperfect  notions  of  the 
truth,  and  also  from  moral  blemishes  of  life,  he  may,  in  God's 
great  house — the  church — be  a  vessel  unto  honor,  sanctified,  meet 
for  the  Master's  use — an  illustration  of  striking  fitness  and  force, 
well  adapted  to  impress  the  richest  moral  lessons  upon  the  first 
and  all  the  future  Timothies. 

22.  Flee  also  youthful  lusts:  but  follow  righteousness, 
faith,  charity,  peace,  with  them  that  call  on  the  Lord  out  of 
a  pure  heart. 

Youth  has  its  temptations;  how  jealously  should  the  servant 
of  God  flee  the  presence  of  whatever  may  excite  them ! Avail- 
ing himself  of  the  law  of  the  expulsion  of  a  baser  by  the  fostering 
of  a  nobler  passion,  let  him  follow  with  utmost  endeavor  after 
righteousness,  faith,  love,  peace — that  so  this  pressing  of  soul 
after  the  higher  and  nobler  may  eclipse  and  rule  out  the  baser. 

23.  But  foolish  and  unlearned  questions  avoid,  knowing 
that  they  do  gender  strifes. 

24.  And  the  servant  of  the  Lord  must  not  strive ;  but  be 
gentle  unto  all  men,  apt  to  teach,  patient; 

25.  Li  meekness  instructing  those  that  oppose  themselves ; 
if  God  peradventure  will  give  them  repentance  to  the 
acknowledging  of  the  truth  ; 

26.  And  that  they  may  recover  themselves  out  of  the 
snare  of  the  devil,  who  are  taken  captive  by  him  at  his  will. 

Another  feature  in  the  character  of  the  errorists  of  Ephesus  is 
prominent  here; — they  were  bigoted  controversialists — passion- 
ately fond  of  controversy,  which  they  seem  to  have  pushed  stren- 
uously, not  to  say — fiercely.  The  true  servant  of  the  Lord  must 
not  strive  in  this  sense  of  the  word. "  Patient"  here  must  pre- 
suppose abuses,  injuries,  which  he  is  to  bear  with  unrufiled  tem- 
per and  in  no  spirit  of  resistance.  Most  admirable  is  this  advice 
— to  instruct  in  all  meekness  those  who  set  themselves  against 
him  and  against  the  truth,  if  possibly,  hopefully,  God  may  inter- 
pose in  his  grace  to  give  them  repentance  unto  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth — such  repentance  of  soul  as  will  bring  them  to  know 
and  love  the  truth — that  so  they  may,  by  their  earnest  endeavor, 
escape  from  the  snare  of  the  devil,  having  been  taken  captive  by 
him  and  held  at  his  will. The  reader  will  notice  that  the  re- 
pentance of  such  men  hangs  upon  the  contingency  of  a  fearful 
"peradventure:"  that  it  must  be  labored  for  with  the  utmost 
wisdom,  and  with  care  not  to  repel  them  still  more ;  that  success 
turns  essentially  upon  God's  merciful  interposition  to  "give  them 
repentance  :"  that  the  devil  holds  them  fearfully  in  his  wily  net; 


276  II.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  III. 

and  as  Paul's  wOrds  suggest,  that  rescue  from  such  a  power  is 
like  the  return  of  the  forlorn  drunkard  to  sobriety,  or  of  the 
man  of  wrecked  reason  to  his  rational  senses.  The  blending  and 
interaction  of  divine  with  human  agencies  are  here  put  forcibly 
and  most  instructively.  Manifestly  Paul  had  not  only  the  great 
Avisdom  that  comes  from  God  but  the  subsidiary  wisdom  of  the 
soundest  philosophy  of  the  human  mind,  and  of  admirable  com- 
mon sense. 


CHAPTER   III. 

Perilous  times  in  the  future,  and  the  men  who  make  them  so 
described  (v.  1-5),  their  doings  continued  (v.  6-9).  Paul  refers  to 
his  past  life  and  sufferings  (v,  10-12),  and  again  to  seducers  (v. 
13);  exhorts  Timothy  to  steadfast  faith  in  view  of  the  reliable 
sources  of  his  knowledge  (v.  14,  15)  the  Holy  Scriptures  being 
truly  inspired  of  God  and  supremely  profitable  to  the  man  of 
God  (v.  16,  17). 

1.  This  know  also,  that  iu  the  last  days  perilous  times 
shall  come. 

2.  For  men  shall  be  lovers  of  their  own  selves,  covetous, 
boasters,  proud,  blasphemers,  disobedient  to  parents,  un- 
thankful, unholy, 

3.  Without  natural  affection,  truce-breakers,  false  accusers, 
incontinent,  fierce,  despisers  of  those  that  are  good, 

4.  Traitors,  heady,  highmiuded,  lovers  of  pleasures  more 
than  lovers  of  God ; 

5.  Having  a  form  of  godliness,  but  denying  the  power 
thereof:  from  such  turn  away. 

The  word  "  last,"  said  of  "  days,"  indicates  a  period  apparently 
still  later  in  time  than  the  "  latter"  days  of  1  Tim.  4  :  1.  It  should 
refer  to  the  times  next  preceding  the  end  of  the  gospel  age  and 

the  final  coming  of  Christ. Judging  from  the  context  these 

days  are  "  perilous,"  not  so  much  for  the  personal  danger  they 
bring  upon  God's  people  as  for  the  grave  apostasy  then  to  ])c  and 
the  awful  depravity  of  the  loading  men.  It  should  be  noted  that 
this  corresponds  with  Paul's  teachings  (2  Thess.  2  :  3-12) — not  to 
say  also  to  those  of  the  Kevelator  .John  (Kcv.  20:  7-10). 

Jn  v.  2  the  clause  "  for  men  shall  be,"  should  be  read^ — "  For  the 
men  shall  be — men  generally  ;  men  in  masses — which  indicates 

an  apostasy  of  no  small  extent. "Shall  Ije  self-lovers" — to  the 

extent  of  supreme  selfishness — the  root  of  all  human  depravity 
being  supreme  devotion  to  self,  and  of  course  necessarily,  entire 


II.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  III.  277 

apostasy  from  God.     Legitimately,  according  to  all  just  philosophy 

of  mind  and  of  sin,  this  stands  first  in  the  dark  catalogue. 

"Covetous"  claims  the  second  place  of  right — certainly  so  if  the 

love  of  money  is  a  root  of  all  sorts  of  evil. "  Boasters,  proud," 

— well-knovrn  manifestations  of  supreme  selfishness  and  consum- 
mate depravity. "  Blasphemers  ' — men  of  foul,  abusive  words 

— sometimes  used  toward  God ;  sometimes  toward  man.  Here 
apparently  toward  God,  because  as  toward  men,  "  false  accusers," 
below,  presents  their  sin.     Blasphemy  God- ward  is  in  words  and 

in  spirit  insulting,  abusive,  profane. "  Disobedient  to  parents  " 

— by  easy  association  comes  next;  for  the  men  who  have  no  re- 
spect for  God  will  readily  come  to  be  reckless  of  all  due  respect 

to  parents  and  to  their  authority. "  Unthankful";  for  there  can 

be  no  place  for  gratitude  in  hearts  so  selfish  and  so  utterly  lost  to 

all  sense  of    moral  obligation. "Unholy"  suggests  the   utter 

absence  in  their  souls  of  what  in  moral  beings  is  most  pure,  most 

noble,  most  lovely. "Without  natural  affection" — sunk  so  low 

morally  that  their  depravity  has  quenched  the  natural  instincts 
which  bind  our  species  in  social  bonds  and  which  we  notice 
to  admire  in  the  lower  animals. "  Truce-breakers  "  is  more 'pre- 
cisely, non-iruce-inakers,  i.  e.,  who  want  full  sweep  for  their  selfish 
jiroclivities  and  who  repel  the  least  restraint  in  the  line  of  com- 
pact, treaty,  covenant, — being  too  depraved  even  to  make  a  cove- 
nant; quite  below  the  grade  of  civilization  which  treaties  and 
compacts  assume. "False  accusers" — unfortunately  too  com- 
mon to  need  explanation. "Incontinent" — without  self-control. 

"  Fierce  "  is  precisely  savage,  untamed — after  the  style  of  fero- 
cious wdld  beasts. "  Despisers  " — literally  non-lovers  of  good 

men — as  we  should  expect. "  Traitors" — probably,  in  the  sense 

of  betraying  Christians  unto  their  persecutors. "  Heady  " — is 

head-strong,  self-willed. — The  Greek  word  for  "  high-minded  "  we 
have  met  (1  Tim.  3  :  6  and  6 :  4),  in  the  sense,  puffed  with  pride 
to  an  extent  damaging  to  sober  sense,  inducing  a  befogged  under- 
standing— an  obtuse  perception  of  the  proprieties  of  life. 

"  Holding  the  form  of  godliness" — but  lost  to  its  power;  disown- 
ing its  moral  claims.     This  indicates  extreme  apostasy  because  it 

involves  sinning  against  light. From   all   such,  turn  thyself 

utterly  away.  Paul  seems  to  think  these  men  more  utterly  hope- 
less as  to  Christian  effort  than  the  opposers  referred  to  (2 :  25, 
26)  whom  he  exhorts  Timothy  to  labor  for,  if  so  be,  their  repent- 
ance may  yet  be  possible. 

6.  For  of  this  sort  are  they  which  creep  into  houses,  and 
lead  captive  silly  w^omen  laden  with  sins,  led  away  with 
divers  lusts, 

7.  Ever  learning,  and  never  able  to  come  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  truth. 

From  this  class  come  proselyters  for  whose  spirit  and  ways  Paul 
has  very  little  respect.  Creeping  into  houses :  leading  captive 
small  women,  broken-down  morally  with  sin  and  crime.     Accord- 


278  II.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  III. 

ing  to  the  original,  it  is  these  little  women  and  not  those  who 
creep  into  their  houses  to  lead  them  astray — who  are  "  ever  learn- 
ing and  never  able  to  reach  the  knowledge  of  the  truth."  "  Ever 
learning" — in  the  sense  (probably)  of  a  low  itching  curiosity,  a 
ceaseless  quest  of  something  newer  as  food  for  gossip : — at  least 
such  is  human  nature,  in  our  age.  That  such  minds  should  ever 
come  to  know  the  truth  is  not  to  be  expected,  for  such  knowledge 
assumes  a  certain  nobility  of  character. 

8.  Now  as  Jannes  and  Jambres  withstood  Moses,  so  do 
these  also  resist  the  truth :  men  of  corrupt  minds,  reprobate 
concerning  the  faith. 

9.  But  they  shall  proceed  no  further :  for  their  folly  shall 
be  manifest  unto  all  men,  as  theirs  also  was. 

Moses  (Ex.  7  :  11,  22  and  8  :  7, 18,  19)  gave  the  fact  of  this  with- 
standing by  the  magicians  of  Egypt;  but  not  their  names.  These 
names  seem  to  have  been  known  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
at  a  date  too  early  to  admit  of  their  having  learned  them  from 
Paul.  Theodoret  (an  early  Father)  states  expressly  that  Paul 
learned  these  names,  not  from  the  divine  Scriptures,  but  from  the 
unwritten  teachings  of  the  Jews.  Whether  this  tradition  was 
only  and  wholly  oral,  or  on  the  other  hand,  had  the  aid  of  writ- 
ten documents,  ultimately  lost,  it  is  impossible  now  to  determine. 

As  to  the  point  of  comparison  between  those  magicians  and 

these  of  the  "last  days,"  it  may  have  been  in  their  spirit  only, 
or  in  their  methods,  or  in  both.     Nothing  forbids  the  supposition 

that  the  latter  class  used  magic  arts. Alike  they  were  men  of 

debased,  morally  corrupt  mind. "Reprobate  as  to  the  faith" 

— the  word  implying  that  they  had  been  proved,  tried,  with  op- 
portunities to  know  the  truth ;  perhaps  with  some  knowledge  of 
the  truth ;  but,  resisting  that  truth,  they  became  morally  dead  to 
its  power  and  were  consequently  disowned  of  God — abandoned 
as  hopeless.  Thus  they  became  "  reprobate  "  by  means  of  and 
so  by  reason  of  their  wicked  resistance  of  truth  up  to  a  point 
where  truth  lost  its  power  over  their  morally  wrecked  nature.  The 
reader  may  see  Paul's  usage  of  this  word  "  rebrobate  "  in  Rom. 
1  :  28  and  1  Cor.  9:  27  and  2  Cor.  13:  5-7  and  Tit.  1  :  16.— 
"  They  shall  proceed  no  further  "  looks  toward  further  extension 
of  their  influence.  The  folly  of  these  shall  become  manifest  as 
was  also  the  folly  of  those,  when  they  were  shown  to  be  power- 
less to  cope  with  Moses. 

Pausing  here  one  moment  upon  the  problem :  Where  in  time 
relative  to  Timothy's  life-work  lay  the  development  of  these  apos- 
tate men  ?  The  reader  will  notice — (1)  They  arc  supposed  to  bo 
"in  the  last  days;"  i.  e.,  shortly  antecedent  to  Christ's  final 
coming:  (2)  They,  or  at  least,  such  men  as  they,  were  already 
beginning  to  appear — "creei>ing  into  houses;"  and  from  these 
Timothy  is  exhorted  to  "  turn  away  "  (v.  5).  (3)  To  harmonize 
these  points  wc  have  no  better  theory  than  this :  that  Paul  did  not 


II.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  III.  279 

know  when  in  time  the  final  coming  was  to  be.  The  Spirit  may 
have  shown  him  some  of  its  immediate  antecedents,  yet  with  no 
date  of  time  as  to  their  full  development.  Jesus  never  attempted 
to  teach  his  disciples  the  date  in  calendar  time.  On  the  contrary, 
he  positively  excluded  the  date  from  the  pale  of  prophetic  revela- 
tion— a  fact  which  is  often  unaccountably  overlooked. 

10.  But  thou  hast  fully  known  my  doctrine,  manner  of 
life,  purpose,  faith,  long-suffering,  charity,  patience, 

11.  Persecutions,  afflictions,  which  came  unto  me  at  An- 
tioch,  at  Iconium,  at  Lystra;  what  persecutions  I  endured: 
but  out  of  them  all  the  Lord  delivered  me. 

12.  Yea,  and  all  that  will  live  godly  in  Christ  Jesus  shall 
suffer  persecution. 

Timothy  had  known  Paul  most  thoroughly — not  his  outer  life 
only  but  his  heart,  his  purpose,  his  faith  and  love  and  patience, 
and  particularly  his  persecutions.  Of  the  latter,  the  specifications 
made  here — Antioch  (in  Pisidia  Acts  13:  50);  Iconium  (Acts 
14:  2);  and  Lystra  (Acts  14:  14,  15),  may  have  been  selected 
out  of  many,  either  because  of  their  greater  severity,  or  because 
of  Timothy's  better  personal  knowledge  of  them.  We  know  that 
these  involved  the  torture  of  stoning  and  scourging  and  no  small 

peril  of  life. Such  an  example  might  well  be  a  moral  tonic  to 

his  beloved  Timothy  and  to  every  Christian  soldier. 'All  who 

ivill  to  live,"  etc. — stronger  than  a  mere  future  tense — this  being 
a  verb  of  loilling,  with  the  sense — All  who  are  fully  purposed 
in  heart,  solemnly  consecrated  to  live  a  godly  life  in  Christ. 

13.  But  evil  men  and  seducers  shall  wax  worse  and  worse, 
deceiving,  and  being  deceived. 

As  through  grace  godliness  has  a  self-perpetuating  power,  so 
has  sin — this  antithesis  being  apparently  the  suggestive  link  of 
thought  between  this  verse  and  the  preceding."  Evil  men,  es- 
pecially seducers,  go  on  progressing  from  bad  to  worse  ;  deceiv- 
ing others  as  a  business,  they  become  more  thoroughly  self- 
deceived.  First,  imposing  lies  upon  others  as  the  truth,  they 
come  to  believe  their  own  lies  to  be  true.  The  mind's  sense  of 
truth  and  power  of  moral  discrimination,  long  abused,  at  length 
collapses,  dies  out,  and  leaves  the  soul,  both  intellectually  and 
morally,  a  wreck.  This  is  "waxing  worse  and  worse"  with  ter- 
rible vengeance ! 

Comparing  this  verse  with  v.  9  above,  that  referred  to  outer 
progress ;  this  to  inner :  that  being  extensive ;  this  intensive : 
that  denied  progress  in  the  way  of  making  converts;  this  affirms 
progress  in  the  line  of  their  own  more  fearful  depravity  of  mind 
and  heart. 

14.  But  continue   thou  in   the   things  which  thou  hast 


280  II.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  III. 

learned  and  hast  been  assured  of,  knowing  of  whom  thou 
hast  learned  them; 

15.  And  that  from  a  child  thou  hast  known  the  holy 
Scriptures,  which  are  able  to  make  thee  wise  unto  salvation 
throudi  faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 

o 

But  on  a  totally  diflferent  line  of  progress,  go  thou  forward 
steadfastly,  holding  fast  to  the  divine  and  blessed  truth  thou  hast 
learned  with  a  certainty  so  assuring,  remembering  that  those 
sacred  writings — the  sources  of  thy  knowledge — are  ^  truly  di- 
vine, and  therefore  able  to  make  thee  wise  unto  salvation,  being 
received  with  the  faith  that  has  its  power  and  life  in  Christ 
Jesus. 

16.  All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is 
profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  in- 
struction in  righteousness : 

17.  That  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly 
furnished  unto  all  good  works. 

On  the  first  clause  of  v.  16— "All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspira- 
tion of  God" — able  and  really  excellent  critics  differ  somewhat 
widely  in  their  construction  and  interpretation.  One  class  sus- 
tain the  translation  given  in  the  authorized  version ;  others  [with 
Ellicott,  Alford,  etc.]  give  it — "Every  Scripture  inspired  by  God 
[or  being  inspired  by  God]  is  also  profitable  for  doctrine,"  etc. 
It  should  not  be  charged  against  these  excellent  critics  that  they 
purposely  open  the  door  for  the  inference  which  worse  men  will 
make — viz.,  since  every  Scripture  that  is  inspired  may  be  much 
less  in  amount  that  "all  Scripture,"  and  only  the  former  amount 
is  inspired  and  profitable;  therefore  men  are  left  to  rule  out  from 
the  pale  of  inspiration  such  books,  or  portions  of  books,  as  they 

judge  to   be   not  inspired  and  therefore  not  profitable. Yet 

their  construction  does  open  the  door  to  this  inference.  Hence  in 
part  the  deep  interest  which  legitimately  gathers  about  this  in- 
vestigation. 

The  fundamental  question — never  to  be  shirked  and  never  to 
be  swamped  under  any  pre-judgment,  is  simply — JVhat  did  Paul 
mean  f 

The  debatable  ground  is  scarcely  at  all  in  the  Lexicon.  A 
small  part  is  in  the  domain  of  grammar — grammatical  laws  and 
usages ;  but  a  much  larger  part  is  in  that  of  exegesis  as  pending 
upon  the  context — the  course  of  thought  and  the  manifest  pur- 
pose of  the  writer. In  addition   to  these,  some  critics  (c.  f/., 

Ellicott)  make  large  account  of  the  interpretation  put  upon  the 
passage  by  the  early  church  fathers — a  source  of  testimony  which, 
to  say  the  least,  may  })e  overestimated. 

The  grammatical  argiiiiient  is  not  readily  made  clear  to  one  not 
familiar  with  tliu  Greek  tongue. Putting  their  best  English 


II.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  III.  281 

equivalents  in  the  place  and  the  order  of  the  successive  Greek 
words  and  omitting  "  is,"  for  which  there  is  no  Greek,  we  have 
it  thus : 

All  [or  every]  Scripture — God-breathed — and  [or  also]  profit- 
able, etc. 

Now  we  have  these  questions  :  Does  "  all"  mean  every  ?  Does 
the  verb  to  be  supplied  {i.  e.,  the  verb  is)  come  in  before  "God- 
breathed"  [inspired]  so  as  to  read,  is  God-breathed  and  is  there- 
fore profitable ;  or  should  it  come  in  after  the  word  for  "  in- 
spired" and  immediately  before  "profitable"? Grammarians 

would  put  this  main  question  in  these  terms  : — Is  the  word  for 
"inspired"  a  mere  adjective,  qualifying  "Scripture,"  or  is  it 
what  they  call  a  predicate,  i.  e.,  a  word  having  essentially  the 
force  of  a  verb  ? 

Our  main  question  as  to  the  sense  of  the  passage  can  not  be 
decided  by  grammatical  laws  and  usages.  Either  of  the  two 
rival  constructions  may  find  support.  We  are  therefore  thrown 
upon  the  laws  of  exegesis — ^.  e.,  upon  considerations  coming  in 
from  the  context,  from  the  writer's  line  of  thought,  and  from  the 
nature  of  the  case.  These  must  decide  the  main  question.  To 
this  field  of  argument,  therefore,  let  us  turn. 

Let  it  be  borne  well  in  mind  that  on  v.  16  we  must  choose  be- 
tween these  two  interpretations: — (a.)  All  [Old  Test]  Scripture 
is  inspired  of  God  and  is  therefore  profitable: — or  (6.)  Every 
inspired  portion  of  this  Scripture  is  profitable,  etc.  I  accept  the 
former  and  reject  the  latter;  and  on  these  grounds: 

1.  It  is  undeniable  that  v.  15  speaks  of  the  whole  Old  Testa- 
ment under  the  phrase — "the  Holy  Scriptures" — and  declares 
that  those  Scriptures  are  able  to  make  wise  unto  salvation. 
Therefore  we  can  not  reasonably  suppose  that  v.  16  speaks  of  any 
thing  less  than  the  whole.  Paul  is  speaking  of  the  whole  and 
not  of  a  part. 

2.  The  purpose  and  aim  of  Paul  in  the  passage  is  unmistakable. 
He  is  exhorting  Timothy  to  shun  with  horror  the  paths  of  Satanic 
delusion,  and  for  this  end  to  abide  firmly  in  the  truth  taught  him 

from  his  youth  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures. At  this  point  and 

onward  we  look  for  an  advance  in  the  thought,  to  put  more  force 
into  his  exhortation  by  developing  his  argment  more  fully.  Does 
he  seek  this  additional  force  by  saying:  "Every  scripture  that  is 
inspired  is  profitable  ?"  Timothy  might  well  have  answered : 
Who  could  help  knowing  that?  That  is  tame  as  a  truism.  To 
say  that  whatever  scripture  is  inbreathed  of  God  into  holy  men 
must  be  useful,  is  much  too  obvious  to  need  saying. 

On  the  other  construction,  how  exceedingly  is  the  force  of  the 
argument  heightened  when  the  emphasis  is  put  upon  the^  word 
"inspired!"  These  sacred  writings  are  able  through  faith  in 
Jesus  to  make  thee  wise  unto  salvation,  for  all  those  scriptures 
are  fresh  and  full  from  the  Divine  Spirit;  they  are  spirit-breathed 
from  God  into  his  chosen  servants.     Therefore  it  is  that  they  are 


282  II.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  III. 

able  to  make  thee  wise  unto  salvation ;  therefore  they  are  profit- 
able for  all  the  uses  of  "  the  man  of  God." 

Or  let  the  argument  be  put  thus :  We  inquire  for  the  emphatic 
word  of  the  sentence.  It  must  be  either  "inspired"  or  "profit- 
able."  As  to  the  word  "  inspired:" — this  fact  of  inspiration  is 

either  assumed  or  asserted.  Under  Ellicott's  construction,  as- 
sumed ;  under  that  of  the  authorized  version,  asserted.  Assumed, 
it  is  not  emphatic ;  asserted,  it  is  so,  being  made  the  decidedly 
emphatic  word  of  the  sentence.  Ellicott  argues  against  its  being 
the  emphatic  word  that  the  doctrine  of  inspiration  had  not  then 
been  called  in  question,  and  therefore  Paul  had  no  occasion  to 
assert  it  emphatically.  To  which  I  answer :  It  is  emphatic  hy  its 
very  nature — by  reason  of  its  infinite  importance,  its  towering 
magnitude,  a,nd  therefore  irrespective  of  the  point  of  having  been 
or  not  been  denied.  Make  it  emphatic,  and  you  put  a  glorious 
strength,  a  marvelous  moral  force  into  the  passage :  All  written 
scripture  is  breathed  by  God  himself  into  the  human  soul  of  the 
writer!  What  truth  more  glorious  than  this  can  be  conceived! 
This  backs  up  the  assertion  next  preceding,  "  able  to  make  thee 
wise  unto  salvation ;"  it  gives  prodigious  force  to  the  assertion 
next  following — viz.,  "profitable"  for  every  Christian  use.  Hence 
this  location  of  the  emphasis,  and  this  construction  of  the  word 
''inspired''  as  the  predicate  of  the  sentence,  the  very  thing  af- 
firmed, is,  in  the  light  of  logic  and  forceful  reasoning,  all  that  can 
be  desired.  It  is  a  declaration  worthy  of  the  mind  and  the  heart 
of  Paul. 

But,  on  the  other  construction,  to  slide  over  the  fact  of  inspira- 
tion with  no  emphasis — not  asserting,  but  only  assuming  it  as  an 
incidental  thing — makes  this  sentence  not  strong,  but  flat.  It 
seems  scarcely  too  much  to  say  that  this  supposed  construction  ia 
disparaging  to  the  known  good  sense  of  the  great  apostle. 

3.  To  put  what  is  essentially  the  same  point  in  a  slightly  varied 
form:  V.  16  does  one  of  two  things — either  {a)  it  advances  in  the 
argument  to  say  that  all  the  Old  Testament  is  truly  God-breathed, 
inspired,  and  therefore  must  be  profitable  for  all  uses,  or  (6)  it 
flats  down  to  this,  that  whatever  portion  of  it  may  be  inspired 
will  be  profitable,  leaving  Timothy  to  judge,  with  no  standard  to 
judge  by,  how  much  or  how  little  of  it  may  be  taken  as  from  God. 
Apart  from  the  fatal  weakness  of  uncertainty  over  the  question 
how  much  or  how  little  of  it  is  inspired,  we  have  the  very  tame 
declaration  that  so  much  of  it  as  is  inspired  must  be  useful ! 

Between  these  two  constructions  I  must  choose  the  one  which 
gives  us  strong  logic ;  which  makes  Paul's  words  mighty  in  rich 
and  glorious  truth;  which  backs  up  the  points  made  in  v.  15  with 
unparalleled  force.  1  must  choose  strength  rather  than  weak- 
ness; strong,  pertinent  logic  as  against  tame  truism — because 
Paul  is  a  very  sensible  man,  a  very  logical  writer,  and  has  there- 
fore an  honest  claim  to  be  read  and  construed  accordingly. 

4.  To  make  the  passage  afiirm  only  this — that  so  much  of  the 
Scripture  as  is  inspired  of  God  is  profitable — does  really  leave  the 


II.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.   III.  283 

question  hoio  mucli  both  open  and  uncertain.  This  uncertainty 
is  not  only  damaging  to  its  practical  force,  but  virtually  fatal. 
For  what  is  to  be  the  test  for  separating  the  inspired  from  the  not 
inspired  portion  ?  If  Paul  left  this  question  open,  to  be  settled 
by  each  reader,  it  was  a  capital  oversight  in  him  to  omit  the 
needful  test  for  its  decision.  Such  a  test  would  have  been  incom- 
parably more  important  than  to  affirm  that  so  much  as  is  inspired 
will  be  useful.  The  latter  we  could  easily  spare,  but  the  former 
can  by  no  means  be  spared ;  and  Paul  is  the  last  man  to  ignore 
its  importance,  or  pass  it  with  no  notice. 

5.  Undeniably,  Jesus  indorsed  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  as 
a  whole.  (See  John  5:  39  and  Luke  16:  29,  31.)  If  Paul  ac- 
cepted this  indorsement  of  the  whole  upon  Christ's  authority,  it 
is  fair  to  assume  that  he  meant  in  this  passage  to  indorse  the 
whole  and  did  not  mean  to  indorse  a  part  only — i.  e.,  only  so 
much  as  may  be  inspired.  Moreover,  if  Paul  did  purposely  take 
issue  with  his  Lord  on  this  point — one  of  such  magnitude — we 
may  doubtless  assume  that  he  would  at  least  have  made  his  de- 
murrer very  distinct,  not  omitting  his  reasons  !  But  whose  heart 
and  whose  mind  do  not  recoil  from  this  supposition  ? 

6.  Some  critics  make  great  account  of  the  grammatical  usage 
of  the  Greek  word  for  all  ("pas"),  when  put,  as  here,  before  a 
noun  in  the  singular  number  and  without  the  article,  insisting 
that  it  must  mean  every  and  not  all.  This  is  a  question  of  usage. 
But  the  point  made  by  those  critics  can  by  no  means  be  main- 
tained. The  New  Testament  supplies  cases  by  scores  [I  have 
before  me  a  list  of  sixty-nine  from  Matthew  to  Philemon  inclu- 
sive] in  which  this  word  means  all  rather  than  every,  in  position 
grammatically  the  same  as  here.  Thus:  "Herod  was  troubled, 
and  all  Jerusalem  with  him"  [not  every  Jerusalem]  (Matt.  2:  3). 
"  It  becometh  us  to  fulfill  all  [not  every']  righteousness"  (Matt.  3  : 
15).  "  That  upon  you  may  come  all  righteous  blood  shed  upon 
earth,"  etc.  (Matt.  23:  35.)  ''All  power  is  given  unto  me"  (Matt. 
28:  18).  Or  take  Paul's  own  usage:  "Wrath  revealed  from 
heaven  against  aZ^  ungodliness"  (Rom.  1:  18).  "So  all  Israel 
shall  be  saved  "  (Rom.  11 :  26).  "  The  God  of  hope  fill  you  with 
a?/ joy,"  etc.  (Rom.  15:  13.)  And  so  on,  till  in  Paul's  thirteen 
epistles  we  count  forty-six  cases.  This  ought  to  be  enough  for  the 
question  of  usage. 

7.  Notice  should  be  taken  of  the  usage  of  the  word  for  "  Scrip- 
ture." *  If  this  word  is  in  use  for  the  whole  Old  Testament 
canon,  the  common  construction  becomes  impregnable.  On  the 
contrary,  if  it  had  been  in  common  use  for  the  separate  books 
of  the  Old  Testament,  or  for  portions  of  the  canon  as  distinct 
from  the  whole,  this  usage  would  have  some  force  in  favor  of  the 
sense — every  such  portion,  being  inspired,  is  profitable. — —Facts 
of  usage  show  that  both  the  plural  and  the  singular  of  this  word 
are  in  common  use  for  the  Old  Testament  canon.  Cases  of  the 
singular  may  be  seen  in  John  2 :  23,  and  7 :  38,  42,  and  10 :  35, 

*  7pa4>7. 


284  II.  TIMOTHY. — CHAP.  IV. 

and  13:  18,  etc.  "They  believed  the  scripture;'  "As  the  scrip- 
ture hath  said;"  "lias  not  the  scripture  said;"  "The  scripture 
can  not  be  broken." — Thus  the  testimony  of  usage  on  this  point 
is  all  that  can  be  desired  in  proof  of  its  meaning  the  whole  Old 
Testament.  It  is  never  used  for  a  part  of  the  canon  as  distinct 
from  the  whole. 

Hence  the  passage  should  be  translated,  "All  scripture  is  God- 
breathed,"  etc. 

As  to  these  uses  in  detail,  all  js  plain.  Here  are  truths  good  to 
believe  for  doctrine ;  good  to  reprove  of  sin ;  good  for  righting 
up  the  stumbling  and  for  correcting  the  erring;  finally,  good  for 
that  instruction  which  works  unto  righteousness.  "  The  man  of 
God,"  as  thought  of  here,  is  not  the  Christian  teacher  alone,  but 
any  and  every  man  who  is  willing  to  be  taught  of  God  through 
his  revealed  word.  Every  such  man  may  equip  himself  thor- 
oughly from  this  storehouse  of  all  needful  truth,  so  as  to  be  fully 
furnished  for  all  good  works. 


CHAPTER  IV 

A  solemn  charge  to  Timothy  (v.  1,  2);  with  special  reasons  (v. 
3,  4),  and  a  more  particular  specification  of  his  duties  (v.  5) :  im- 
pressed by  reference  to  his  own  near  approaching  death,  his  con- 
quering Christian  life,  and  his  expected  crown  (v.  G-8).  Closing 
special  directions  (v.  9-13) ;  the  case  of  the  coppersmith  (v.  14, 
15);  allusion  to  his  first  hearing  before  the  Roman  court  (v.  16- 
18),  with  closing  salutations,  requests  and  benedictions  (v.  18-22). 

1.  I  charge  thee  therefore  before  God,  and  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  shall  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead  at  his  ap- 
pearing and  his  kingdom ; 

2.  Preach  the  word;  be  instant  in  season,  out  of  season; 
reprove,  rebuke,  exhort  with  all  long-suffering  and  doctrine. 

This  "  charge"  has  all  the  dignity  of  a  solemn  adjuration  be- 
fore God  and  the  Lord  Jesus.  Indeed  it  is  better  to  give  the  last 
clause  of  v.  1,  ["at  his  appearing,"  etc.]  the  sense  of  an  adjura- 
tion. There  being  no  authority  for  saying  at  his  appearing,  let 
it  road  />//  [1  charge  thee  %]  liis  august  appearing,  and  by  the 
inauguration  of  liis  final,  heavenly  kingdom. 

"  Be  instant" — in  the  sense — Be  on  hand;  on  the  alert;  always 

ready  to  strike. "In  season;  out  of  season" — in  times  good 

or  not  good;  under  opportunities  fair  or  not  fair;  to  improve  the 
favorable  moment  fully,  and  as  to  the  unfavorable,  make  the  best 

of  them. Perhaps  our  version — "out  of  season" — might  be 

abused;  for  some  things  are  so  very  much  "out  of  season"  as 


II.    TIMOTHY. — CHAP.    IV.  285 

should  preclude  their  being  done.  Paul's  word  is  simply  nega- 
tive— denying  any  thing  favorable ;  not  touching  the  case  of  what 

is    positively    unseasonable. Moreover,    the    question    arises 

whether  this  distinction  as  to  seasonable  refers  to  Timothy  him- 
self; or  to  his  hearers.  Does  Paul  exhort  Timothy  to  push  on  in 
sunshine  or  in  storm;  sick  or  well;  weak  or  strong?  Or  does  he 
think  of  the  men  to  be  labored  for,  as  more  or  as  less  accessible? 
The  context  favors  the  latter ;  for  the  time  may  come  when  you 
can  reach  men  only  with  extremest  difficulty. 

3.  For  the  time  will  come  when  they  will  not  endure 
sound  doctrine ;  but  after  their  own  lusts  shall  they  heap  to 
themselves  teachers,  having  itching  ears ; 

4.  And  they  shall  turn  away  their  ears  from  the  truth, 
and  shall  be  turned  unto  fables. 

There  are  moral  states  of  mind  in  which  pure  unvarnished 
truth  is  very  distasteful ;  really  unendurable.  It  is  men  of  this 
sort  (and  not  their  teachers)  who  have  "itching  ears;"  who 
therefore  accumulate  for  themselves  teachers,  good  to  tickle  their 

ears  for  them. As  if  this  were  the  exalted  function  of  men 

sent  of  God  to  preach  his  holy  gospel ! Yes,  there  are  men 

who  turn  their  ears  away  from  what  is  unwelcome,  merely  be- 
cause it  is  too  true,  and  who  turn  themselves,  with  the  proclivi- 
ties of  natural  affinity,  unto  myths,  fables — amusing  and  not 
adapted  to  trouble  the  conscience. 

5 .  But  watch  thou  in  all  things,  endure  afflictions,  do  the 
work  of  an  evangelist,  make  full  proof  of  thy  ministry. 

Paul's  word  for  "  watch  "  means  primarily — be  sober,  yet  in  the 

sense  of  a  wakefnl,  sound,  earnest  mind. "  The  work  of  an 

evangelist"  was  auxiliary  to  that  of  the  apostles.  He  was  an 
associate  helper;  ready  for  every  emergency;  preaching,  teach- 
ing, doing  all  subsidiary  work  as  occasion  might  arise.  It  seems 
never  to  have  constituted  a  special  class,  as  that   of  bishop  or 

presbyter;  and  deacon. "  Make  full  proof  of  thy  ministry  "  in 

the  sense  of  discharging  all  its  functions ;  performing  faithfully 
all  its  duties. 

6.  For  I  am  now  ready  to  be  offered,  and  the  time  of  my 
departure  is  at  hand. 

7.  I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished  my  course, 
I  have  kept  the  faith : 

8.  Henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of  right- 
eousness, which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  judge,  shall  give  me 
at  that  day:  and  not  to  me  only,  but  unto  all  them  also  that 
love  his  appearing. 

"Offered" — strictlj poured  out  aa  the  libations  in  the  Mosaic 
ritual.      My  life-blood  is   ready — and  is  to   flow  soon.     Paul's 
13 


286  II.   TIMOTHY. — CHAP.   IV. 

martyrdom  was  under  the  axe  of  the  executioner. "The  time 

for  my  departure  "  from  earth  to  my  other  home — is  at  hand. 

Then  sweeping  his  eye  over  his  life-work  of  more  than  thirty 
years — comparing  it  to  a  fight  hand  to  hand,  he  had  fought  it 
well;  or  to  a  foot-race  in  the  Olympian  games,  he  had  finished  it 
grandly ;  or  to  a  life-struggle  to  hold  it  fast,  he  had  kept  the  gos- 
pel faith — unsoiled  in  its  purity,  unabated  in  its  power,  untar- 
nished in  its  glory ! And  it  was   in    no  spirit  of  vanity   that 

these  reminiscences  of  his  wonderful  life  bore  to  him  this  con- 
soling and  morally  sublime  testimony.  There  was  intrinsic  fit- 
ness in  placing  this  life-sketch  of  his  toils  and  struggles  and 
manifold  endurances  before  the  susceptible  mind  of  Timothy  to 
inspire  him  to  follow  an  example  of  which  it  was  naturally  im- 
possible that  Paul  should  feel  ashamed.  It  was  never  in  Paul's 
heart  to  parade  his  marvelous  life-record  for  display;  nor  did  he 
give  place  to  a  prudish  delicacy  which  would  forbid  allusion  to 
it  even  to  dearest  friends. 

On  one  occasion,  quite  other  than  this  his  mouth  had  been 
forced  open  by  the  invidious  slanders  of — somebody — in  Corinth ; 
and  Paul,  though  the  words  it  extorted  from  his  lips  sounded 
like  self-praise  and  made  him  seem  almost  a  fool  (so  he  said),  yet 
he  did  give  a  graphic  sketch  [any  body  can  read  it  in  2  Cor  llj 
— which  in  point  of  immense  and  unceasing  labor;  of  intense 
and  mighty  endeavors;  of  abuse  and  torture  and  manifold  suf- 
ferings, borne  with  most  heroic  spirit,  stands  in  all  human  history 

unequaled — certainly  unsurpassed. From  the  point  where  he 

now  stood,  this  was  a  life-landscape,  as  seen  looking  backward. 

There  was  another  life,  open  to  the  front  a  forward  view, 
of  things  in  prospect ; — the  crown  of  righteousness,  awaiting 
Christian  conquerors.  It  was  held  (he  could  see)  in  the  hand  of 
the  Great  Judge,  to  be  awarded  to  the  faithful.  Paul  had  no 
doubt  it  awaited  himself  and  the  scene  of  its  realization  was  full 

in  his  view. His  personal  joy  in  this  prospect. did  not  preclude 

the  kindred  joy,  that  the  same  crown  was  ready  equally  for  all 
who  in  heart  loved  the -same  Redeemer  and  his  appearing. 

9.  Do  thy  diligence  to  come  shortly  unto  me : 

10.  For  Demas  hath  forsaken  me,  having  loved  this 
present  world,  and  is  departed  unto  Thessalonica ;  Crescens 
to  Galatia,  Titus  unto  Dalmatia. 

11.  Only  Luke  is  with  me.  Take  Mark  and  bring  him 
with  thee:  for  he  is  profitable  to  me  for  the  ministry. 

12.  And  Tycdiicus  have  I  sent  to  E})hesus. 

13.  The  cloak  that  I  left  at  Troas  with  Carpus,  when  thou 
comest,  bring  ivlth  thee,  and  the  books,  but  es2)ecially  the 
parchments. 

Here  we  have  the  somewhat  remarkable  fact  in  Christian  ex- 
perience— that  though  his  consolations  in  Christ  were  apparently 
perfect,  and  his  anticipations  of  future  glory  rose  even  to  rapture, 


II.    TIMOTHY. — CHAP.    IV.  287 

yet  his  human  soul  longed  for  the  personal  presence  and  sympa- 
thy of  human  friends.  His  heart  pines  to  see  his  beloved  Timo- 
thy. Many  of  his  friends  had  left  him,  or  for  various  reasons 
"were  absent.  He  feels  bereaved  and  desolate.  One  had  forsaken 
him  through  love  of  this  present  world ;  another  and  another  had 
gone  till  only  Luke  remained.  Apparently  he  felt  the  lack  of 
his  personal  liberty  in  these  slow  hours  of  his  prison  solitude; 
hence  those  books  and  parchments  would  be  particularly  welcome. 
Also  in  view  of  the  approaching  winter  (v.  21)  "that  cloak." 
We  hope  Timothy  was  able  to  reach  him  with  these  comforts  in 
due  time. 

14.  Alexander  the  coppersmith  did  me  much  evil:  the 
Lord  reward  him  according  to  his  works : 

15.  Of  whom  be  thou  ware  also ;  for  he  hath  greatly 
withstood  our  words. 

Of  this  particular  coppersmith  (Alexander)  nothing  else  is 
known.  Timothy  is  now,  supposably,  in  Ephesus ;  the  silver- 
smith mob  (of  Acts  19 :  23-41)  illustrates  to  us  the  business 
antagonism  between  the  "  smiths  "  and  the  gospel  of  Christ — so 
that  we  need  have  no  special  difficulty  in  filling  out  sufficiently 
the  details  of  his  persecutions  of  the  apostle.  Timothy,  being 
there,  was  exposed  to  the  same  hostile  spirit,  and  the  same  subtle, 
malign  opposition. 

16.  At  my  first  answer  no  man  stood  with  me,  but  all 
men  forsook  me :  I  pray  God  that  it  may  not  be  laid  to  their 
charge. 

17.  Notwithstanding  the  Lord  stood  with  me,  and  strength- 
ened me;  that  by  me  the  preaching  might  be  fully  known, 
and  that  all  the  Gentiles  might  hear :  and  I  was  delivered 
out  of  the  mouth  of  the  lion. 

18.  And  the  Lord  shall  deliver  me  from  every  evil  work, 
and  will  preserve  me  unto  his  heavenly  kingdom :  to  whom 
be  glory  forever  and  ever.     Ajnen. 

Of  this  first  hearing  before  the  tribunal  of  the  Caesars  (i.  e., 
the  first  during  and  resulting  from  this  second  imprisonment) 
we  have  no  other  details.  Human  friends  by  his  side  he  had 
none ;  why  they  forsook  him  in  this  trying  hour,  we  are  left  to 
conjecture.     Like  his  great  Master  ("  Father,  forgive  them  ")  he 

too  prayed :     "  Let  it  not  be  laid  to  their  charge  ! " But  the 

Lord  stood  with  him  and  gav^e  him  strength.  The  strength  he 
specially  sought  and  consequently  found  was  not  so  much  to  make 
an  able  defense  and  secure  an  acquittal,  as  strength  to  improve 
this  (possibly)  last  opportunity  to  testify  for  Christ  from  the  royal 
tribunal  and  before  the  august  court  of  the  Koman  Empire — 
"  that  by  me  the  preaching  might  be  fully  known,  and  that  all  the 
Gentiles  might  hear."  This  \vas  morally  sublime!  This — ^we 
might  perhaps  say — was  unlike  any  other  man,  but  not  unlike 


288  II.   TIMOTHY. — CHAP.   IV. 

the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles. Though   the    question    at 

issue  is  to  him  one  of  life  or  death,  yet  to  preach  Christ  before 
that  tribunal  was  more  to  him  than  this  decision  upon  his  life. 

"I  was  delivered  (this  time)  from  mouth  of  lion  '  (so  his  words 
read)  omitting,  perhaps  purposely  any  more  specific  allusion  to 
individuals ;  leaving  only  the    general   sense — deliverance    from 

this  peril. He  accepted  this  deliverance  as  a  fresh  assurance 

that  his  Lord  would  also  deliver  him  from  every  evil  machination, 
unto  his  heavenly  kingdom. 

19.  Salute  Prisca  and  Aquila,  and  the  household  of  One- 
siphorus. 

20.  Erastus  abode  at  Corinth:  but  Trophimus  have  I 
left  at  Miletum  sick. 

21.  Do  thy  diligence  to  come  before  winter.  Eubulus 
greeteth  thee,  and  Pudens,  and  Linus,  and  Claudia,  and  all 
the  brethren. 

22.  The  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  thy  spirit.  Grace  be 
with  you.     Amen. 

This  Prisca  (elsewhere  Priscilla)  with  her  husband  Aquila, 
first  seen  in  the  sacred  history  at  Corinth  (Acts  18:  1-5);  next 
at  Ephesus  (Acts  18 :  24-26) ;  also  at  Rome  (Rom.  16 :  3-6)  are 
still  remembered  tenderly  by  the  apostle. The  closing  bene- 
diction is  specially  rich:  "The  Lord  [Jesus]  be  with  thy  spirit." 
What  could  he  have  said  more  expressive,  more  touching,  more 
tenderly  dear  to  his  young  friend  ? 

So  this  paragon  of  all  epistles  comes  to  its  close. 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  TITUS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Of  the  personal  history  of  Titus,  it  is  well  to  gather  into 
one  general  view  the  little  that  is  known.  He  is  not  named 
in  Acts ;  but  if  (as  is  credibly  supposed)  Paul's  journey  to 
Jerusalem,  referred  to  (Gal.  2 :  1)  is  the  same  with  that  of 
Acts  15:  2,  he  was  included  among  the  "certain  others" 
who  went  with  Paul  and  Barnabas  from  Antioch  to  Jerusa- 
lem to  the  great  Council  (A.  D.  50.) 

Unlike  Timothy  who  had  Jewish  blood  on  the  mother's 
side,  Titus  was  a  Greek,  and  as  such,  Paul  refused  to  re- 
quire his  circumcision  (Gal.  2  :  3-5).  Inasmuch  as  Paul 
calls  him  his  own  son  in  the  faith  (Tit.  1:4),  we  may  ac- 
count him  one  of  Paul's  converts,  probably  of  Antioch,  and 
so  among  the  very  early  fruits  of  Paul's  labors.  In  addition 
to  these  points  of  his  early  history,  we  find  allusion  to  him 
in  2  Cor.  2  :  13  and  7  :  6,  13-15  and  8  :  6,  16,  23,  and  12: 
18 — from  which  it  appears  that  he  had  been  intimately  as- 
sociated with  Paul  in  gospel  labors  ;  that  Paul  had  the  high- 
est confidence  in  his  integrity  and  sincere  devotion  to  Christ 
and  not  least  in  the  deep  affection  of  his  heart.  Paul  speaks 
of  his  great  disappointment  in  not  finding  him  at  Troas  ;  of 
his  being  comforted  by  the  coming  of  Titus  to  him  in  Mace- 
donia where  he  was  writing  2  Corinthians,  of  the  important 
service  he  rendered  (presumably)  in  enforcing  the  needful 
discipline  in  the  important  case  at  Corinth  and  in  bringing 
the  offender  to  repentance — of  all  which  he  brought  word 
to  Paul,  greatly  to  his  relief  and  joy  (2  Cor.  7  :  6-15).  An- 
other very  responsible  service  he  accomplished  at  Corinth  in 
the  collection  taken  up  there  for  the  suffering  saints  in  Jeru- 
salem (2  Cor.  12  :  18). 

Historical  allusions  to  Titus  appear  in  this  epistle,  show- 
ing that  he  had  accompanied  Paul  to  Crete ;  had  been  left 
there  to  set  in  order  things  that  remained  undone  or  at  least 

(289) 


290  INTRODUCTION. 

unfinished ;  and  particularly  to  superintend  the  ordination  of 
elders  in  every  city.  This  epistle  is  a  manual  of  instruc- 
tions for  this  supervising  work.  It  is  therefore  a  pastoral 
letter  in  the  same  class  with  those  to  Timothy,  having  the 
same  general  object,  and  differing  only  as  the  circumstances 
in  Crete  might  differ  in  minor  points  from  those  at  Ephesus. 
As  to  the  date  of  this  epistle  we  seem  authorized  to  place 
it  between  the  two  to  Timothy— later  than  the  first ;  earlier 

than  the   second. He  wrote  from  Ephesus,  and  in  the 

autumn  of  A.  D.  66  or  67 ;  speaks  (3  :  12)  of  a  purpose  to 
pass  the  ensuing  winter  at  Nicopolis  (supposed  to  be  the  city 
of  that  name  in  Epirus)  to  which  city  he  urges  Titus  to 
come  without  fail.  At  this  city  it  is  supposed  he  was  ar- 
rested and  taken  thence  to  Rome — his  last  imprisonment— 

which  terminated  in  his  martyrdom. [Smith's  Bible  Dic- 

tionary  ("Titus")  has  a  very  compact  presentation  of  the 
known  incidents  in  his  personal  history.] 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  TITUS. 


CHAPTER    I. 


The  introduction  (v.  1-4);  the  object  of  leaving  him  at  Crete 
(v.  5);  the  ordination  of  elders;  their  specific  qualifications 
(v.  6-9) ;  to  counteract  the  influence  of  bad  men,  here  described 
(v.  10-16). 

1.  Paul,  a  servant  of  God,  and  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ, 
according  to  the  faith  of  God's  elect,  and  the  acknowledging 
of  the  truth  which  is  after  godliness ; 

2.  In  the  hope  of  eternal  life,  wdiich  God,  that  can  not 
lie,  promised  before  the  w^orld  began; 

3.  But  hath  in  due  times  manifested  his  word  through 
preaching,  which  is  committed  unto  me  according  to  the 
commandment  of  God  our  Savior; 

4.  To  Titus,  7nine  own  son  after  the  common  faith :  Grace, 
mercy,  and  peace,  from  God  the  Father  and  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  our  Savior. 

In  V.  1  the  words — "  according  to  the  faith  "  fail  to  give  the 
sense;  for  Paul's  apostleship  was  in  no  proper  sense  graduated 
according  to  this  faith,  or  made  to  correspond  with  it.  His  words 
mean — was  exercised  in  behalf  o^  this  faith ;  had  for  its  object 
the  promotion  of  this  faith,  and  also  the  diffusion  of  right  knowl- 
edge of  the  truth  vs^hich  is  unto  godliness  {unto,  not  "  after  "). 

This  rested  as  its  ultimate  object  upon  the  hope  of  eternal  life, 
which  God — infinitely  truthful — had  "  promised  before  the  world 
began."  This  last  clause  is  literally,  before  eternal  ages — said 
apparently  with  allusion  to  the  eternal  purpose  of  God's  love  in 
which  it  had  its  birth — the  word  "  eternal  '  being,  we  may  sup- 
pose, suggested  by  his  use  of  the  same  word  applied  to  "  life  " — 
"  eternal  life."  This  eternal  life  had  its  root — its  ultimate  source 
— in  God's  eternal  purpose  of  love  out  of  which  all  gospel  prom- 
ises come. "  In   due  times  " — is   more  precisely — in  his  own 

times — times  determined  in  his  own  wisdom — the  reference  being 
to  the  gospel  age  as  the  time   to  reveal  the  gospel   by   means  of 

the  preaching  of    men  like  Paul. "  To  Titus,  mine  own  son  " 

— in  the  sense  of  having  been  converted  under  Paul's  instrumen- 
tality.    This  endearing  relationship,  it  was  Paul's  perpetual  joy 

(201) 


292  TITUS. — CHAP.    I. 

to  recognize — never  without  grateful  thanks  to  the  God  of  all 
grace. 

5.  For  this  cause  left  I  thee  in  Crete,  that  thou  shouklest 
set  in  order  the  things  that  are  wanting,  and  ordain  elders 
in  every  city,  as  I  had  appointed  thee : 

6.  If  any  be  blameless,  the  husband  of  one  wife,  having 
faithful  children  not  accused  of  riot  or  unruly. 

How  early  the  gospel  was  planted  in  Crete  is  not  certainly 
known.     There  were  Cretans  among  the  hearers  of  Peter  on  the 

day  of  Pentecost  (Acts  2:   11). In  this  populous  island  were  a 

considerable  number  of  cities,  having  churches,  each  of  which 
needed  help  in  selecting  and  ordaining  suitable  pastors.  This 
service  required  more  time  than  Paul  could  give.  He  therefore 
left  his  faithful  son  Titus  to  finish  it,  and  wisely  wrote  him  these 
instructions. 

The  point  of  first  importance  was  the  selection  of  well-qualified 
men  for  "elders."  Note  that  Paul  uses  "elder"  and  "bishop" 
interchangeably — "elders"  in  v.  5;  but  "bishop"  in  v.  7  when 
he  speaks  of  their  qualifications.  The  word  "elder"  contem- 
plates age,  dignity  of  character;  "bishop"  looks  toward  the  serv- 
ice of  spiritual  oversight,  care,  and  labor. "  Blameless,"  above 

reproach. "The  husband  of  one  wife,"  unquestionably  shuts 

ofi"  the  pulygamist.  Some  critics  suppose  it  also  excludes  the 
man  who  had  married  a  second  wife  after  the  decease  of  the 
first.  But  Paul's  words  do  not  necessarily  or  even  naturally  in- 
clude  this  case,  and   therefore   his   authority   should   never   be 

claimed   against  such  second  marriages. "  Having  believing 

children" — who  moreover  are  not  dissolute  or  disobedient  to 
their  parents.  A  well-trained  household  would  be  one  of  the  best 
proofs  of  the  father's  qualifications  to  take  the  analogous  care  of 
"the  house  of  God."  If,  on  the  contrary,  he  had  made  a  failure 
in  the  care  and  training  of  his  own  household,  how  could  he  be 
trusted  to  do  better  in  the  pastoral  care  of  the  church  ?  (See  1 
Tim.  3:  4,  5,  12.) 

7.  For  a  bishop  must  be  blameless,  as  the  steward  of  God; 
not  self-willed,  not  soon  angry,  not  given  to  wine,  no  striker, 
not  given  to  filthy  lucre ; 

8.  But  a  lover  of  hospitality,  a  lover  of  good  men,  sober, 
ju.st,  holy,  temperate ; 

9.  Holding  fast  the  faithful  word  as  he  hath  been  taught, 
that  he  may  be  able  by  sound  doctrine  both  to  exhort  and 
to  convince  the  gainsayers. 

A  steward  (oikonomos)  has  charge  of  the  household — its  busi- 
ness manager.  The  bishop  serves  under  (rod  in  a  similar  capac- 
ity.  TIk;  qualificatidiis  named  here  will  mostly  interpret  them- 
selves.  The  "self-willed"  quality  of  character  would  .surely 


TITUS. — CHAP.   I.  293 

make  trouble ;  for  the  real  merits  of  each  case  should  decide  it, 
and  no  make-iveight  of  self-will  should  ever  be  thrown  into  the 
scale.  Men  opinionated,  proud,  standing  upon  personal  dignity, 
dull  of  vision  to  see  any  thing  bearing  against  their  own  notions, 

are  always  troublers  in  Zion. Not  irascible  in   temper :   not 

propense  to  wine :  not  quick  to  resent  and  strike  back.  Not  a 
man  for  base  gain — in  which  we  may  notice  that  Paul  has  no  re- 
spect— certainly  no  soft  words  for  this  propensity  to  enrich  one's 
self "A  lover  of  good  " — is  what  Paul  said;  and  this  would  in- 
clude good  men  and  good  things  also. "  Temperate  "    in  the 

broad  sense — self-controlled,  holding  every  appetite  and  passion  in 

due  subjection. "  The  faithful  word  "  is  that  which  commends 

itself  to  our  faith  to  be  received  as  from  God  through  the  teach- 
ing of  apostles.  Holding  this  fast,  he  will  be  able  by  means  of 
truthful  teaching  to  give  appropriate  exhortation  and  to  convince 
opponents. 

10.  For  there  are  many  unruly  and  vain  talkers  and  de- 
ceivers, specially  they  of  the  circumcision : 

11.  AVhose  mouths  must  be  stopped,  who  subvert  whole 
houses,  teaching  things  which  they  ought  not,  for  filthy 
lucre's  sake. 

"Unruly"  is  the  same  word  as  in  1  Tim.  1:  9 — there  trans- 
lated "  lawless,"  and  also  above  (v.  6)  of  children  not  obedient  to 
parents.     The  sense   here   is — men  under   no   proper  restraint, 

who  are  a  law  unto  themselves. Noticeably  this   class  were 

mostly  "  of  the  circumcision  " — Jews.  A  sad  picture  of  their 
ways,  spirit  and  influence  ! 

12.  One  of  themselves,  even  a  prophet  of  their  own,  said, 
The  Cretians  are  always  liars,  evil  beasts,  slow  bellies. 

13.  This  witness  is  true.  Wherefore  rebuke  them  sharply, 
that  they  may  be  sound  in  the  faith  ; 

14.  Not  giving  heed  to  Jewish  fables,  and  commandments 
of  men,  that  turn  from  the  truth. 

It  is  assumed  that  these  pernicious  proselyters — "  they  of  the 
circumcision  " — were  Cretians  in  character.  Their  national  char- 
acteristics had  been  given  by  one  of  their  own  poets  (the  word 
"prophet"  having  anciently  this  sense  as  well),  viz.,  Epaminon- 
das,  who  lived  B.  C.  600 — a  man  of  "  rare  distinction  as  priest, 

bard  and  seer  among  his  countrymen." A  people  at  once  false, 

savage,  sensual  and  gluttonous — there  was  extreme  need  of  the 
civilizing  and  transforming  power  of  the  gospel  among  them. 
Therefore  Paul  enjoins ;  Rebuke  them  sharply ;  bring  them  to 
sound  views  of  gospel  truth ;  let  them  eschew  all  Jewish  myths 
and  traditions  of  men,  apostate  from  the  real  truth  of  God. 

15.  Unto  the  pure  all  things  are  pure:  but  unto  them  that 
are  defiled  and  unbelieving  is  nothing  pure ;  but  even  their 
mind  and  conscience  is  defiled. 


294  TITUS. — CHAP.    II. 

16.  They  profess  that  they  know  God ;  but  in  works  they 
deny  him,  being  abominable,  and  disobedient,  and  unto  every 
good  work  reprobate. 

Obviously  Paul  has  in  mind  Jewish  notions  as  to  things  cere- 
monially clean  and  unclean,  and  would  teach  that  to  men  of  pure 
heart,  all  external  things  were  pure — this  Jewish  ceremonial  dis- 
tinction being  of  not  the  least  account  as  to  them. But  as  to 

men  at  heart  defiled  and  unbelieving,  nothing  whatever  could  be 
pure ;  no  meats,  no  washings  of  the  person ;  no  conformity  to  the 
Mosaic  ritual,  could  give  them  real  holiness  of  heart  or  purity  of 
character.  Their  very  soul — their  moral  nature — is  defiled.  Pro- 
fessing to  know  God,  their  lives  belied  this  profession ;  their  deeds 
proved  them  to  have  no  just  sense  of  God's  character  or  claims 

upon    his    creatures. "As  to  every  good  work  reprobate  " — 

means  that  they  were  altogether  disapjwoved  of  God;  disowned, 
rejected — as  men  tried  but  found  utterly  wanting. 


)>e<c 


CHAPTER    II. 

Instructions  for  aged  men  (v.  1,  2);  for  aged  women  and  what 
they  should  teach  the  younger  (v.  3-5) ;  the  example  himself 
should  set  (v.  6-8);  duties  of  servants  (v.  9,  10);  what  saving 
gospel  grace  teaches  and  enjoins  (v.  11,  12);  the  great  moral  pur- 
pose for  which  Christ  has  redeemed  his  people  (v.  13-15). 

1.  But  speak  thou  the  things  which  become  sound  doctrine : 

2.  That  the  aged  men  be  sober,  grave,  temperate,  sound 
in  faith,  in  charity,  in  patience. 

Sound,  wholesome  gospel  truth  calls  for  a  pure  Christian  life. 
See  that  thou  enjoin  upon  every  class  in  society  the  duties  which 
gospel  truth,  legitimately  applied  in  their  circumstances,  shall  in- 
dicate. Thus  there  are  qualities  of  character  and  duties  in  life, 
specially  appropriate  to  aged  men:  sobriety,  gravity,  self-control. 
"  Sound  "  in  the  sense  of  truthful  and  wholesome — in  respect  to 
their  faith,  love,  and  patience.  Faith,  classed  thus  with  "  love  " 
and  "patience,"  should  be  the  grace  of  the  heart,  rather  than 
specially  the  truth  itself  believed.  Let  their  faith  be  strong, 
pure,  and  in  its  moral  influence  purifying,  controlling.  So  also 
of  their  love,  and  of  their  quiet  endurance. 

3.  The  aged  women  likewise,  that  tlwy  he  in  behavior  as 
becometh  holiness,  not  false  accusers,  not  given  to  much 
wine,  teachers  of  good  things : 


TITUS. — CHAP.   II.  295 

4.  That  they  may  teach  the  young  women  to  be  sober,  to 
love  their  husbands,  to  love  their  children, 

5.  To  be  discreet,  chaste,  keepers  at  home,  good,  obedient 
to  their  own  husbands,  that  the  word  of  God  be  not  blas- 
phemed. 

Let  aged  women  adorn  their  sacred  profession  in  their  deport- 
ment; not  slanderers  (speaking  against  each  other) ;  not  enslaved 
to   much  wine,  but   teaching,  by  precept  and  example,  what  is 

truly  honorable. That  they  train  the  young  women  into  ways 

of  sobriety :  to  love    their  husbands   and   their   children — those 

beautiful  domestic  virtues. All  this,  to  the  end  that  the  word 

of  God — the  doctrine  taught  as  from  the  Lord — be  not  evil  spoken 
of,  but  rather  held  in  honor  as  being  conducive  to  the  well  or- 
dered and  happy  family. 

6.  Young  men  likewise  exhort  to  be  sober-minded. 

7.  In  all  things  shewing  thyself  a  pattern  of  good  works: 
in  doctrine  shelving  uncorruptness,  gravity,  sincerity, 

8.  Sound  speech,  that  can  not  be  condemned;  that  he  that 
is  of  the  contrary  part  may  be  ashamed,  having  no  evil 
thing  to  say  of  you. 

Like  Timothy,  Titus  also  may  have  been  sufficiently  near  in  age 
to  young  men  to  be  a  model  for  their  behavior.  Paul  would  have 
him  exhort  young  men  unto  sound-minded  sobriety,  in  all  things 

making  himself  an  example  of  good  works. "  Sound  speech  " 

— probably  referring  to  public  discourse ;  let  it  be  unexceptiona- 
ble. "  He  of  the  contrary  part "  is  in  the  opposition,  the  uncon- 
verted, and  supposably  the  heathen  who  might  be  among  his 
hearers, — "May  be  ashamed,"  under  his  conscious  sense  of  the  su- 
perior excellence  of  such  doctrine  and  of  such  resulting  life. 

9.  Exhort  servants  to  be  obedient  unto  their  own  masters, 
and  to  please  them  well  in  all  things;  not  answering  again; 

10.  Not  purloining,  but  shewing  all  good  fidelity ;  that 
they  may  adorn  the  doctrine  of  God  our  Savior  in  all 
things. 

This  catalogue  of  the  duties  of  bond-servants  corresponds  with 

Paul's  teaching  in  Eph.  6  :  5-8,  Col.  3  :  22  and  1  Tim.  6 :  1. 

"Not  answering  again,"  by  contradiction,  opposition, — "not  pur- 
loining'— the  vice  of  theft,  including  all  forms  of  embezzlement, 
opposed'to  honest  fidelity.  So  doing  they  will  adorn  the  doctrine 
of  God — will  really  commend  it  to  their  masters,  and  not  least  to 
those  who  were  ungodly — who  might  so  be  won  to  appreciate  the 
gospel. 

11.  For  the  grace  of  God  that  bringeth  salvation  hath  ap- 
peared to  all  men, 


296  TITUS. — CHAP.    II. 

12.  Teaching  us  that,  denying  ungodliness  and  worldly 
lusts,  we  should  live  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly,  in  this 
present  world ; 

The  collocation  of  the  Greek  words  is  like  this  : — For  already 
has  been  manifested  the  grace  of  God  with  salvation  for  all  men; 
showing  the  sense  to  be — not  appeared  to  all  men,  but  pro- 
viding salvation  for  all.  Paul  does  not  by  any  means  assert  that 
this  grace  secures  the  salvation  of  all.  Quite  unlike  that,  his 
Avords  mean  that  this  grace  bears  within  itself  the  capabilities  of 
salvation  for  the  race ;  makes  salvation  possible  to  all ;  is  a  grace 

broad  enough  in  its  vast  provisions  to  fill  the  wants  of  all, It 

aims  to  secure  this  benign  result  by  teaching  two  things — (1)  To 
deny  all  ungodliness  and  all  worldly  lust : — (2)  To  live  a  sober, 

righteous,  godly  life  in  this  world. Comprehensively,  this  grace 

comes  with  proffered  salvation,  insuring  it  to  us  for  the  eternal 
future,  if  so  be  we  seek  and  find  salvation  from  sin  in  this  present 
world.  The  beginning  must  be  here  or  the  glorious  ending  can 
not  be  there.  The  first  grand  work  of  this  gospel  grace  is  to  de- 
liver from  present  sin.     This  done,  the  Lord  will  provide  for  its 

consummation  in  the  life  to  come. Thus  Paul  would  utilize 

all  the  vast  moral  forces  lying  in  a  prospective,  glorious  immor- 
tality, and  make  it  bear  toward  a  godly  life  here  and  now. 

13.  Looking  for  that  blessed  hope,  and  the  glorious  ap- 
pearing of  the  great  God  and  our  Savior  Jesus  Christ ; 

14.  Who  gave  himself  for  us,  that  he  might  redeem  us 
from  all  iniquity,  and  purify  unto  himself  a  peculiar  people, 
zealous  of  good  works. 

15.  These  things  speak,  and  exhort,  and  rebuke  with  all 
authority.     Let  no  man  despise  thee. 

"Looking,"  with  longing  desire,  "for  that  blessed  hope" — 
"  hope  "  here,  not  in  the  subjective  sense — that  hope  whose  place 
is  within  our  heart ;  but  in  the  objective  sense — the  object  hoped 
for — here  further  defined  as  the  manifestation  ["appearing"]  of 
the  glory  of  the  great  God,  even  our  Savior  Jesus  Christ.  Be- 
yond question  this  manifestation  of  the  glory  of  the  great  God 
must  be  that  of  Jesus  Christ  in  his  second  and  final  coming.  The 
reader  will  notice  how  strongly  the  passage  supports  the  real 
divinity  of  Christ — this  "appearing"  being  obviously  none  other 
thiin  his  own  at  the  last  day  : — For  (a)  this  "  appearing  "  is  never 
(unless  hen;)  spoken  of  as  that  of  the  Father  or  of  God  in 
distinction  from  .Jesus  Christ,  but  always  as  the  appearing  of 
Jesus.  (6)  The  preceding  context  has  Christ  specially  in  view 
in  that  appearing  (v.  11)  which  brought  to  light  the  grace  of 
salvation,  (c)  The  subsequent  context  is  wholly  of  Cliristwho 
gave  himself  for  us  to  redfunn  us.  {d)  This  epithet  "  great "  can 
have  no  special  pertinence  as  a[»prK;(l  to  the  Father,  but  has, 
considered  as  spoken  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Great  God :  (e)  As 
to  the  word  "and"  [the  great  God  and  our  Savior]  it  often  has 


TITUS. — CHAP.    III.  297 

the  sense,  even,  carrying  the  mind  onward  to  another  descriptive 
name  of  this  glorious  personage. 

The  object  for  which  Christ  gave  himself  for  us  is  here  made 
very  distinct  and  emphatic  : — viz.,  to  redeem  us  from  all  iniquity 
— redeem  by  making  himself  a  ransom  for  us — through  his  own 

blood. As  this  clause  includes  the  atonement  made  by  Christ's 

death  and  the  resulting  pardon  of  the  believer's  sin,  so  the  next 
relates  to  the  other  great  department  of  his  work— the  moral  pu- 
rification of  his  people — that  "  he  might  purify  unto  himself  a 
people  acquired,'  to  be  held  as  his  special  property  and  joyful 
possession.  Such  seems  to  be  precisely  the  sense  of  the  word 
"  peculiar,"  as  may  be  seen  (1  Pet.  2:  9). Let  these  two  co- 
ordinate and  supreme  objects  of  Christ's  work  in  his  life  and  in 
his  death — redemption  from  the  curse,  and  cleansing  from  the 
moral^  defilement,  of  sin — be  brought  to  bear  perpetually  with 
their  intense  and  momentous  pressure  upon  our  souls  unto  a  holy, 
consecrated  life,  supremely  zealous  of  good  works.  Let  these  be 
the  staple  themes  of  this  good  evangelist,  exhorting  and  rebuking 
with  all  authority.  A  grander  mission  was  never  given  to  mortal 
man.  Let  him  perform  it  with  a  dignity  and  earnestness  worthy 
of  its  nature  and  no  man  can  despise  him. 


»><«« 


CHAPTER   III. 

To  obey  the  civil  authorities  (v,  1);  to  shun  all  evil-speaking 
and  cultivate  gentleness"  (v.  2);  enforced  by  looking  back  to  their 
own  life  in  sin  (v.  3),  and  to  the  stupendous  change  wrought  by 
the  manifestation  of  divine  mercy  in  Christ  (v.  4-7) ;  insists  that 
believers  maintain  good  works  (v.  8),  but  avoid  foolish  questions 
and  controversies  (v.  9).  Heretics  after  due  but  unavailing  admon- 
ition to  be  rejected  (v.  10,  11);  specific  personal  directions  (v.  12, 
13)  with  one  closing  exhortation  to  good  works;  salutations  and 
greetings  (v.  14,  15). 

1.  Put  them  in  mind  to  be  subject  to  principalities  and 
powers,  to  obey  magistrates,  to  be  ready  to  every  good  work, 

2.  To  speak  evil  of  no  man,  to  be  no  brawler,  hut  gentle, 
showing  all  meekness  unto  all  men. 

Quiet,  unresisting  obedience  to  the  civil  authorities  was  the 
uniform  doctrine  of  both  Christ  and  his  apostles.  There  may  have 
been  special  reasons  in  the  case  of  the  Cretians  for  reiterating 
and  enforcing  it.  Anterior  to  the  Roman  rule  which  began  B,  C. 
67,  their  civil  institutions  had  been  somewhat  democratic — some 
traditionary   reminiscences  of  which  may  have    been   lingering 


298  TITUS. — CHAP.    III. 

still.  Their  national  [or  tribal]  character  seems  never  to  have 
been  distinguished  for  mildness  and  tractability. 

In  regard  to  submission  to  the  civil  power,  it  should  be  borne 
in  mind  that  throughout  the  whole  apostolic  age,  the  dominion  of 
Rome  was  both  universal  and  imperial — every-where  present  and 
every-where  absolute,  so  that  the  Christian  fraternity  had  never 
the  least  responsibility  for  the  wisdom  or  the  equity  of  the  gov- 
ernment under  which  they  lived.  Moreover,  during  much  of  this 
period  they  were  in  more  or  less  peril  of  civil  persecution  as 
hostile  to  the  established  state  religion.  Hence  for  every  reason, 
implicit,  unresisting  submission  to'the  civil  power  was  their  high- 
est wisdom.  This  submission  must  be  universal^  with  the  one 
exception  that  they  could  not— must  not — worship  the  Roman 
Emperor,  nor  the  heathen  gods  of  Rome.  ^  In  all  other  points 
they  were  to  be  models  of  good  order,  shining   examples  of  the 

blameless  citizen — prompt  and  swift  to  every  good  work. "To 

speak  evil  of  no  man,"  maliciously — thus  taking  care  to  make  no 
personal  enemies  causelessly — that  they  might  stand  in  such 
relations  to  the  ungodly  on  every  side  as  would  give  them  the 
fullest  access  to  their  heart  and  conscience.     This  was  to  be  the 

great  law  of  their  social  life. "  No  brawlers  " — this  word  in  the 

sense  of  quarreling  and  fighting  rather  than  of  mere  scolding.     On 

the  contrary,  let  them  be  gentle,  forbearing,  meek  toward  all. 

How  beautiful  is  this  gospel  temper  and  this  Christian  life,  seen 
in  contrast  with  human  selfishness,  untamed  by  the  sweet  pre- 
cepts and  spirit  of  Christ ! 

3.  For  we  ourselves  also  were  sometimes  foolish,  disobe- 
dient, deceived,  serviiif^  divers  lusts  and  pleasures,  living  in 
malice  and  envy,  hateful,  and  hating  one  another. 

You  will  see  reason  for  much  forbearance  toward  provokingly 
abusive  men  if  you  will  recall  the  fact  that  before  ye  knew  and 
felt  the  gospel's  power  ye  were  bad  as  they.  Here  is  the  picture 
of  that  former  godless  temper  and  life — "  foolish"  [very  senseless 
were  we]  ;  unyielding ;  deceived  and  erring  under  the  sway  of 
countless  delusions ;  enslaved  to  various  lusts  and  pleasures ; 
hateful  in  ourselves  and  hating  one  another,  so  that  mutual 
hatreds  and  hostilities  were  the  common  law  of  our  social  life. 

4.  But  after  that  the  kindness  and  love  of  God  our  Savior 
toward  man  appeared, 

5.  Not  by  works  of  righteousness  which  we  have  done, 
l)ut  according  to  bis  mercy  he  saved  us,  by  the  washing  of 
regeneration,  and  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost ; 

6.  Which  he  shed  on  us  abundantly,  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Savior ; 

7.  That  being  justified  l)y  his  grace,  we  should  be  made 
heirs  according  to  the  hope  of  eternal  life. 

Such  is  the  picture,  with  no  relief  to  the  dark  shadings,  until 


TITUS. — CHAP.  III.  299 

the  kindness  and  philanthropy  [love  toward  men]  of  God  our 
Savior  broke  in  upon  our  dark,  selfish  souls.  Then  came  a  glo- 
rious change!  This  change  is  assumed  so  naturally  and  fully 
that  Paul  seems  to  forget  to  assert  it  definitely ;  but  is  borne  on 
as  if  fascinated  by  the  facts  and  the  features  of  this  marvelous 
manifestation  of  God's  love.  This  great  salvation  turned  in  no 
respect  upon  works  of  righteousness  which  ive  had  done  [Paul 
makes  this  "  we  "  emphatic  by  writing  it  in  full].  It  sprang  from 
a  totally  different  source.  It  came  from  God's  mercy  alone  and 
can  be  measured  only  by  the  amazing  depth  and  vastness  of  that 

mercy. Instrumentally   considered,    it    wrought   through   the 

washing  of  regeneration  and  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  that  is 
to  say,  by  that  purifying  of  the  heart  which  is  wrought  by  the 
regenerating,  renewing  agency  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  two 
correlated  figures — the  new  birth  and  the  renewing,  are  brought 
as  closely  together  as  the  genius  of  the  Greek  tongue  will  admit, 
and  both  are  attributed  to  the  Holy  Ghost — really  as  co-ordinate 

figures  for  the  same  thing. In  this  word  "washing"  [lutronj 

which  occurs  elsewhere  only  in  Eph.  5 :  26,  there  may  be  an  allu- 
sion to  baptism  in  the  symbolic  and  spiritual  sense,  but  with  no 
stress  upon  its  merely  material  nature  and  power.  The  less  we 
make  of  the  virtue  of  mere  water  to  wash  sin  from  the  human 
soul,  the  better.     As  a  figure,  a  symbol,  it  has  its  use ;  as  a  power 

in  itself,  not  the  least  imaginable. This  renewing  power  was 

shed  forth  on  us  abundantly  through  Jesus,  to  the  end  that,  being 
justified,  not  by  works  of  our  own,  but  by  the  grace  of  God  only, 
we  might  inherit  the  hope  and    in  due  time  the  reality  of  eternal 

life. In  this  rapid  grouping  of  the  great  elements  of  salvation 

through  Christ,  the  two  salient  points  are — (a)  The  washing  and 
rencAving  which  saves  the  soul  from  sinning  and  from  its  con- 
demnation;  and  (6)  the  being  justified,  i.  e.,  pardoned  and  made 
right  in  the  eye  of  law. These  two  great  elements  of  the  gos- 
pel scheme  are  always  present  in  every  analysis  which  Paul 
makes  of  the  gospel.  It  is  no  gospel  to  him  without  them  both. 
Men  must  be  justified  by  faith  in  Jesus;  and  equally,  they  must 
be  washed — purified  in  heart  and  made  holy  through  the   Holy 

Ghost. Reviewing  the  logical  connections  of  this  passage,  we 

notice  that,  in  Paul's  showing,  men  were  sunk  hoplessly  in  de- 
pravity, malice,  hatefulness — continuously,  terribly — up  to  the 
moment  when  there  flashed  forth  this  revelation  of  God's  compas- 
sionate loving  kindness.  With  this  revelation,  there  came  a  re- 
deeming, restoring  power.  To  this  gospel  and  to  this  only  and 
alone,  have  we  been  indebted  for  all  that  has  made  us  to  difier 
from  the  unwashed  heathen. Such  a  view  of  this  change  oc- 
curs not  infrequently  in  Paul's  epistles  (e.  g.,  1  Cor.  6:  9-11). 

8.  Tliis  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  these  things  I  will  that 
thou  affirm  constantly,  that  they  which  have  believed  in 
God  might  be  careful  to  maintain  good  works.  These 
things  are  good  and  profitable  unto  men. 


300  TITUS. — CHAP.  III. 

This  is  a  word  to  be  believed  -with  firmest  faith  (see  1  Tim. 
1 :  15).  In  respect  to  all  these  points  I  wish  thee  to  make  them 
strong  by  solemn  reiteration — that  those  who  have  believed  in 
God  be  zealous  with  great  care  to  maintain  good  works — to  stand 
before  the  world  distinguished  for  well  doing.     This  is  the  sense 

(very  admirable)  of  Paul's  words. Such  "  works  are  good  and 

profitable  unto  men  " — a  blessing  to  society,  and  therefore  pleas- 
ing and  honorable  to  God, The   high  place  assigned  to  good 

works  in  these  epistles  to  Timothy  and  to  Titus  should  by  no 
means  be  overlooked — a  prominence  in  fullest  harmony  with  the 
genius  of  Christianity,  yet  doubtless  put  here  in  this  strong  re- 
lief because  the  vices  of  the  age  and  the  mischievous  errors 
thrust  upon  those  churches  by  men  at  once  false  and  foul,  made 
it  necessary.  As  is  well  said  by  Ellicott : — "Their  religion 
was  not  to  be  a  hollow,  specious,  falsely  ascetic  and  sterile  Chris- 
tianity, but  one  that  showed  itself  in  outward  action." 

9.  But  avoid  foolish  questions,  and  genealogies,  and  con- 
tentions, and  strivings  about  the  law ;  for  they  are  unprofita- 
ble and  vain. 

The  words — "genealogies  and  strivings  about  the  law" — in- 
dicate the  Jewish  origin  of  these  insipid  questions,  and  ques- 
tioners as  well.  The  Pharisaism  of  the  time  of  Christ  became 
only  the  more  foolish,  formal,  flat — with  the  lapse  of  time  and 
with  its  antagonism  against  gospel  light  which  its  advocates  were 
sinning  against.  Probably  we  might  also  say — became  only 
the  more  disputatious,  hair-splitting,  controversial,  and  utterly 
valueless. 

10.  A  man  that  is  an  heretic,  after  the  first  and  second 
admonition,  reject; 

11.  Knowing  that  he  that  is  such  is  subverted,  and  sin- 
neth,  being  condemned  of  himself. 

In  view  of  its  bearings,  both  real  and  supposed,  upon  church 
discipline,  this  passage  should  be  carefully  studied — (a.)  In  its 
words:  (6.)  In  its  context,  i.  e.,  in  the  light  of  the  case  contem- 
plated.  (a.)  The  word  "heretic"  occurs  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment here  only.  But  "heresy"  in  both  its  singular  and  plural 
form  occurs  several  times — the  singular  in  tlie  sense  of  a  sect 
(Acts  5:17  and  15  :  5  and  24  :  5,  14  and  26  :  5  and  28 :  22).  For 
its  plural  form  see  1  C(jr.  11:19  and  Gal.  5  :  20  and  2  Peter  2:1. 

The  essential  idea  seems  to  be  that  of  notions  of  a  man's  own 
choosing;  novel  opinions  with  which  he  has  become  enamored. 
But  on  the  nature  and  amount  of  his  heresy,  light  should  be 
sought,  (b.)  From  the  context.  Here  it  seems  obvious  that  this 
"heretic"  is  not  so  much  directly  assailing  and  denying  some 
fundamental  doctrine  of  the  gospel  system  as  indirectly  "ruling 
out  all  the  vital  things  of  the  gospel  by  constructing  a  gospel 
scheme  of  his  own  out  of  tho  sheerest  puerilities,  genealogies, 


TITUS.— CHAP.    III.  801 

hair-splitting  controversies  over  Mosaic  law  questions,  etc.,  etc. 

Men  of  this  character  Titus  was  to  admonish  the  first  and 

(this  failing)  the  second  time.  Both  having  proved  unavailing, 
he  is  to  jshun  those  men.  "Reject"  is  somewhat  stronger  than 
Paul's  word  will  justify.  He  is  to  excuse  himself  from  further 
association  with  them.  The  reason  given  is  that  such  a  man  is 
"subverted" — i.  e.,  perverted  in  mind;  dangerously  if  not  hope- 
lessly given  to  waywardness,  having  lost  the  due  balance  which 
unperverted  good  sense  supplies. "And  sinneth" — his  way- 
ward notions  come  to  involve  real  sin  because  he  goes  against  the 
light  he  has  or  might  have,  and  by  resisting,  perverts  and  debases 
his  conscience — a  man,  self-accused,  but  not  repentant  and  yield- 
ing to  the  truth. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  light  which  comes  in  upon  this  case 
from  the  context  is  quite  vital  to  a  just  conception  of  our  pas- 
sage. Particularly  it  explains  why  shimning  such  men  is  the 
appropriate  treatment.  They  can  not  be  counted  into  the  goodly 
fellowship  of  servants  of  Christ  because  they  lack  the  vital  ele- 
ments of  Christian  character.  Their  false  teaching  is,  however, 
to  be  condemned  rather  for  its  negative  qualities  than  its  positive. 
It  is  not  gospel  because  it  is  only  frivolous,  foolish,  subtle,  power- 
less for  good.  The  point  of  its  condemnation  is  not  that  it  labors 
directly  and  positively  to  assail  and  overthrow  the  vital  truths  of 
the  gospel. 

12.  When  I  shall  send  Artemas  unto  thee,  or  Tychicus, 
be  diligent  to  come  unto  me  to  Nicopolis:  for  I  have  deter- 
mined there  to  winter. 

13.  Bring  Zenas  the  lawyer  and  Apollos  on  their  journey 
diligently,  that  nothing  be  wanting  unto  them. 

This  Nicopolis  is  probably  that  of  Epirus,  lying  therefore  on 
his  route  from  Achaia  [Corinth]  toward  Rome.  There  he  pur- 
posed (at  this  writing)  to  spend  the  ensuing  winter. Whether 

this  Zenas  was  a  "  lawyer '    in  the  Roman  or  in  the  Jewish  sense 

is  not  certain — the  latter  being  much  more  probable. Apollos 

appears  several  times  in  the  Acts  and  epistles — a  Jew  of  Alexan- 
dria, whose  first  knowledge  of  Christianity  came  through  John 
the  Baptist.  He  was  a  man  of  eloquence  and  mighty  in  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures.  He  first  came  in  contact  with  the  more 
full  gospel  teaching  at  Ephesus,  in  the  society  of  Priscilla  and 
Aquila.  So  for  as  is  known  his  gospel  labors  were  in  that  city 
and  subsequently  in  Corinth.  His  relations  with  Paul  seem  to 
have  been  only  pleasant,  albeit  a  party  at  Corinth  seem  to  have 
been  disposed  to  gather  about  him  as  their  favorite  man  (1  Cor. 
3:  4,5). 

14.  And  let  ours  also  learn  to  maintain  good  works  for 
necessary  uses,  that  they  be  not  unfruitful. 

15.  All  that  are  with  me  salute  thee.  Greet  them  that 
love  us  in  the  faith.     Grace  be  with  you  all.     Amen. 


302  TITUS. — CHAP.  III. 

"Let  ours" — i.e.,  our  people,  the  members  of  our  fraternity 
and  church — be  careful  to  be  worthily  and  truly  distinguished  by 
their  good  works,  particularly  for  the  necessary  purposes  of  life 
— supporting  themselves  by  honest  industry  so  as  not  to  burden 
others.  On  the  contrary,  let  them  be  helpful  to  those  Vvho  are 
really  in  need. 

Greet  all  those  who  love  us  in  the  faith — because  we  are  be- 
lievers in  Christ — loving  us  because  of  our  Christian  character 
and  relationships. 


THE  EPISTLE   TO  PHILEMON. 


INTRODUCTION. 

The  points  germain  to  an  introduction  to  this  short  epistle 
are  few,  simple,  and  quite  well  established. 

Philemon  was  a  resident  of  Colosse,  as  is  shown  by  that 
of  his  servant  Onesimus,  said  by  Paul  in  his  letter  to  the 
church  at  Colosse  to  be  ''one  of  you"  (Col.  4:  9). 

This  epistle  discloses  its  own  occasion ;  its  antecedents  and 
attendant  circumstances.  Briefly  put,  they  are  these  : — 
Philemon  had  held  Onesimus  as  his  bond-servant.  Onesimus 
made  his  escape — and  his  way  to  Rome,  where,  under  the 
labors  of  Paul,  he  became  a  convert  to  Christ.  Paul  there- 
fore sends  him  back  with  this  letter  to  Philemon,  relating 
the  facts  of  his  conversion  and  commending  him  to  the 

Christian-  confidence  of  his  former  master. It  was  written 

from  Rome  during  Paul's  first  imprisonment  there,  nearly  at 
the  same  time  with  those  to  the  Colossians  and  Ephesians 
(about  A.  D.  61  or  62). 

Among  the  epistles  of  Paul  this  one  is  entirely  unique,  un- 
like any  other.  It  is  not  addressed  to  any  church,  but  to 
one  individual ;  discusses  no  great  doctrinal  themes ;  expa- 
tiates not  upon  Christian  morals ;  aims  not  to  regulate  dis- 
cipline nor  to  correct  erratic  tendencies  in  any  church  what- 
ever. It  is  simply  a  personal,  private  letter,  of  the  same 
class  with  the  second  and  the  third  epistles  of  John.  How 
it  came  to  be  included  in  the  sacred  canon — why  this  rather 
than  many  other  private  letters  which  Ave  may  presume  Paul 
wrote,  we  have  no  data  to  determine,  unless  we  account  the 
lovely  spirit  it  breathes,  the  delicate  tact  it  exhibits,  and  the 
valuable  results  in  the  case  of  this  one  household,  to  be  ade- 
quate reasons  for  the  honorable  place  assigned  it  in  the 
canon. 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  PHILEMON. 


The  customary  salutation  (v.  1-3) ;  personal  gratitude  and 
prayer  in  view  of  what  he  has  heard  of  Philemon  (v.  4-7) ; 
earnestly  commends  to  him  Onesimus,  his  convert,  and  begs  Phil- 
emon to  receive  him  in  his  personal  love  to  Paul  (v.  8-12) ; 
whom  he  might  have  retained,  but  would  not  without  Philemon's 
consent  (v.  13,  14) ;  suggests  that  the  Lord's  good  hand  might 
have  brought  Onesimus  to  Rome  to  be  converted,  and  thus  be- 
come a  Christian  brother  to  his  former  master  (v.  15-17);  Paul 
will  make  good  any  wrong  this  servant  may  have  done  his  mas- 
ter (v.  18,  19) ;  renews  his  request,  coupled  with  expressions  of 
confidence  that  it  will  be  granted  (v.  20,  21);  suggests  his  pur- 
pose to  visit  this  friend  (v.  22),  and  closes  with  salutations  (v. 
23-25). 

1.  Paul,  a  prisoner  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  Timothy  our 
brother,  unto  Philemon  our  dearly  beloved,  and  fellow- 
laborer, 

2.  And  to  our  beloved  Apphia,  and  Arcbippus  our  fellow- 
soldier,  and  to  the  church  in  thy  house; 

3.  Grace  to  you,  and  peace,  from  God  our  Father  and  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

With  exquisite  sense  of  propriety,  Paul  omits  all  reference  to 
his  apostleship.  He  is  only  a  "prisoner"  in  behalf  of  Christ, 
writing  from  his  prison-home. — Timothy's  name  is  joined  with 
his  as  in  two  other  epistles  of  the   same  date,  viz.,  Philippians 

and  Colossians. Philemon  is  addressed  as   a   fellow-laborer, 

dearly  beloved — terms  which  suggest  not  certainly  that  he  was  in 
the  pastorate,  or  held  any  office  in  the  church,  but  that  he  was  at 
least  an  active  and  useful  lay  brother.  Apphia  is  supposably  his 
wife;  and  Archippus  perhaps  their  son,  whom  Paul  honors  with 
the   designation  "  our   fellow-soldier" — i.  e.,  in    the  army  of  the 

Lord. "The  church  in  thy  house"  is  not  in   New  Testament 

usage  the  church  of  which  he  was  pastor,  but  the  church  accus- 
tomed to  meet  for  worship  in  his  private  residence.  Aquila  and 
Priscilla  are  twice  referred  to  as  keeping  open  house  for  a  wor- 
shiping congregation,  thus  having  a  church  assembly  in  their  own 
private  house  (Kom.  IG:  5  and  1  Cor.  10:  19), 
{;3oi) 


PHILEMON.  305 

4.  I  thank  my  God,  making  mention  of  tkee  always  in 
my  prayers, 

5.  Hearing  of  thy  love  and  faith,  which  thou  hast  toward 
the  Lord  Jesus,  and  toward  all  saints ; 

6.  That  the  communication  of  thy  faith  may  become  ef- 
fectual by  the  acknowledging  of  every  good  thing  which  is 
in  you  in  Christ  Jesus. 

7.  For  we  have  great  joy  and  consolation  in  thy  love,  be- 
cause the  bowels  of  the  saints  are  refreshed  by  thee,  brother. 

In  V.  5,  our  English  version  assumes  that  "love  and  faith"  bear 
the  same  relation  ["toward"]  both  to  the  Lord  Jesus  and  to  all 
the  saints."  With  much  greater  precision  of  thought,  Paul  uses 
two  somewhat  different  prepositions — the  former  having  the  sense 
before,  in  the  presence  of,  and  generally  in  respect  to ;  but  the 
latter  is  one  which  suggests  working  toward,  bearing  effectively 
upon  for  good.  In  v.  6  I  understand  the  object  of  Paul's  prayer 
to  be  that  the  impartation  of  thy  faith  may  become  energetic  in 
the  sphere  of  a  true  knowledge  of  every  thing  good — i.  e.,  by 

means  of  diffusing  such  knowledge. "  Bowels,"  in  the  oriental 

sense — the  heart  or  soul,  as  the  seat  of  deep  affection. 

8.  Wherefore,  though  I  might  be  much  bold  in  Christ  to 
enjoin  thee  that  which  is  convenient, 

9.  Yet  for  love's  sake  I  rather  beseech  thee,  being  such  an 
one  as  Paul  the  aged,  and  now  also  a  prisoner  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

10.  I  beseech  thee  for  my  son  Onesimus,  whom  I  have 
begotten  in  my  bonds: 

11.  Which  in  time  past  was  to  thee  unprofitable,  but  now 
profitable  to  thee  and  to  me: 

12.  Whom  I  have  sent  again :  thou  therefore  receive  him, 
that  is,  mine  own  bowels: 

Wherefore,  although  in  my  relation  to  Christ  as  his  apostle,  I 
might  assume  all  boldness  to  enjoin  (command)  thee  to  do  what 
is  in  itself  appropriate  (i.  e.,  to  receive  Onesimus  in  the  spirit  of 
forgiveness  and  love),  yet  I  choose  rather  to  base  my  request  upon 
love — the  love  thou  bearest  to  me  ;  and  therefore  I  simply  entreat 
thee  to  do  for  me  this  favor — for  me  now  aged  and  also  a  pris- 
oner for  Christ. 

In  behalf  of  my  son  Onesimus  [thou  surely  wilt  do  me  this  favor 
for  my  own  son .'],  who,  through  my  instrumentality  while  here 
in  bonds,  has  become  my  convert  to  Christ.  In  v.  11,  the  words 
"profitable"  and  "unprofitable"  are  a  play  upon  the  word  Ones- 
imus, which  signifies  "  profitable."  Aforetime  he  was  no  Ones- 
imus to  thee,  for  he  deserted  thy  service ;  but  now,  through  his 
conversion,  he  has  become  a  real  Onesi7nus  to  me ;  and  if  re- 
ceived kindly  will  be  so  to  thee  also.     I  therefore  have  sent  him 


306  PHILEMON. 

back  to  thee.  Receive  him  as  if  he  were  my  own  soul,  embody- 
ing the  love  of  my  heart. 

13.  Whom  I  would  have  retained  with  me,  that  in  thy 
stead  he  might  have  ministered  unto  me  in  the  bonds  of  the 
gospel : 

14.  But  without  thy  mind  would  I  do  nothing;  that  thy 
benefit  should  not  be  as  it  were  of  necessity,  but  willingly. 

I  had  occasion  for  his  services  in  the  gospel  and  was  wishing 
to  detain  him  for  this  purpose ;  but,  recognizing  thy  relation  to 
him,  I  would  not  do  so  without  thy  free  consent. 

15.  For  perhaps  he  therefore  departed  for  a  season,  that 
thou  shouldest  receive  him  for  ever; 

16.  Not  now  as  a  servant,  but  above  a  servant,  a  brother 
beloved,  specially  to  me,  but  how  much  more  unto  thee, 
both  in  the  flesh,  and  in  the  Lord? 

17.  If  thou  count  me  therefore  a  partner,  receive  him  as 
myself. 

This  "  perhaps  "  seems  to  look  toward  the  providential  purpose 
of  God  in  the  elopement  of  Onesimus — viz.,  that  he  might  fall 
under  Paul's  influence  and  be  converted,  and  so  become  more 
than  his  servant,  even  his  Christian  brother;  and  this  for  more 
than  the  years  of  this  transient  life — even  for  ever. 

18.  If  he  hath  wronged  thee,  or  oweth  thee  ought,  put 
that  on  mine  account ; 

19.  I  Paul  have  written  it  with  mine  own  hand,  I  will 
repay  it :  albeit  I  do  not  say  to  thee  how  thou  owest  unto 
me  even  thine  own  self  besides. 

The  supposition  made  here,  "wronged  thee  or  oweth  thee  any 
thing,"  is  thought  to  imply  that  Onesimus  might  have  gone  forth 
from  his  master's  house  not  empty,  but  with  some  supplies  for 
future  need — an  offense  which  Phileman  might  have  accounted 
theft  or  robbery.  To  obviate  all  possible  difficulty  on  this  ground 
between  Onesimus  and  Philemon,  Paul  generously — perhaps  moro 
generously  than  justly — steps  forward  with  his  pledge  to  pay  this 

supposed  claim. The  claim  which  Paul  forbears  to  press,  "that 

thou  owest  me  in  addition  thine  own  self,"  is  supposed  to  allude  to 
the  circumstance  that  Philemon  owed  his  own  conversion  to  Paul's 
labors  in  his  behalf 

20.  Yea,  brother,  let  me  have  joy  of  thee  in  the  Lord : 
refresh  my  bowels  in  the  Lord. 

21.  Having  confidence  in  thy  obedience  I  wrote  unto  thee, 
knowing  that  thou  wilt  also  do  more  than  I  say. 

Thus  Paul  implores  his  friend  (shall  we  say  his  spiritual  son  ?) 
Pliileinon  to  do  this  deed  of  justice  as  a  personal  favor,  to  gratify 
Paul's  deeply  yearning  heart.     IJut  very  delicately,  he  would  not 


PHILEMON.  307 

assume  that  Philemon  can  object.     Rather  he  has  all  confidence 
that  he  will  grant  more  than  all  he  asks. 

Grouping  together  the  salient  points  of  this  negotiation  with 
Philemon  in  behalf  of  his  returning  servant  Onesimus,  the  spirit 
of  the  aged  apostle  appears  in  every  point  of  view  most  admirable. 
All  the  critics,  not  to  say  all  intelligent  readers,  are  struck  with 
the  delicate  tact  it  evinces;  with  Paul's  love  for  Onesimus;  with 
his  very  respectful  deference  to  the  claims  of  Philemon,  and  with 
the  kind  words  he  finds  to  say  of  his  piety  and  usefulness. — As 
to  my  own  personal  views,  I  am  drawn  to  add  that  while  I  fully 
indorse  all  this  approbation  of  Paul's  spirit  and  tact,  I  am  humil- 
iated and  ashamed  for  our  common  humanity  that  a  tithe  of  it  all 
should  have  been  deemed  necessary.  Paul  wrote  as  a  man  who 
almost  shrunk  from  touching  this  delicate  relation  of  master  to 
servant — as  a  man  profoundly,  not  to  say  painfully,  impressed 
with  the  sensitiveness  of  masters  to  whatever  bears  upon  their 
assumed  rights  in  their  human  property.  Apparently,  Paul  did 
hope  that  Philemon's  piety  would  carry  the  suit  against  his  cupid- 
ity and  against  his  sense  of  being  wronged  by  his  fugitive  serv- 
ant. But  we  must  infer  that  on  every  other  ground  save  that  of 
sincere  piety,  Paul  would  not  have  dared  to  ask  such  a  favor.  I 
judge  that  Paul's  inner  soul  was  sad,  not  to  say  outraged,  under 
the  necessity  for  such  extreme  caution  in  asking  as  a  boon  a 
thing  so  manifestly  righteous  and  just.  How  his  views  of  the 
brotherhood  of  Onesimus  must  have  rebelled  against  the  claim  of 
property-right,  on  the  part  of  another  Christian  brother,  in  his 
flesh  and  bones ! 

22.  But  withal  prepare  me  also  a  lodging ;  for  I  trust  that 
through  your  prayers  I  shall  be  given  unto  you. 

23.  There  salute  thee  Epaphras,  my  fellow-prisoner  in 
Christ  Jesus ; 

24.  Marcus,  Aristarchus,  Demas>  Lucas,  my  fellow-labor- 
ers. 

25.  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  he  with  your 
spirit.     Amen. 

Paul  hopes  to  make  Philemon  a  visit  at  his  own  home  in  Co- 
losse — a  city  which  Paul  had  never  yet  visited.  The  visit  might 
put  him  in  a  position  to  adjust,  if  need  should  be,  the  new  Chris- 
tian relationship  between  the  old  master  and  this  new-born  child 
of  God. Salutations  from  the  Christian  friends  and  fellow- 
laborers  then  at  his  side — all  well-known  names — close  this  epis- 
tle. 


THE  GENERAL  EPISTLE  OF  JAMES. 


INTRODUCTION. 

It  will  introduce  us  to  the  intelligent  study  of  this  epistle 
to  inquire  into  the  following  points: 

I.  The  Author: 
11.  The  Date; 

III.  The  people  addressed  ;  who,  where ;  and  of  what 
leading  characteristics ; 

IV.  The  SPECIAL  OBJECTS  OF  THE  EpISTLE. 

I.  The  Author. 

In  regard  to  the  author  of  this  epistle,  some  points  can  be 
settled  with  reasonable  certainty ;  and  fortunately,  these  in- 
clude all  that  are  specially  important.  The  public  life  and 
labors  of  this  James  during  the  entire  apostolic  age;  his 
prominent  position  at  Jerusalem  ;  the  esteem  in  which  he 
was  held  there  and  his  controlling  influence — all  suffice  to 
show  how  fully  his  credentials  as  one  of  the  leading  Chris- 
tian teachers  were  accredited  by  both  the  apostles  and  the 
churches.  These,  it  will  be  seen,  are  the  points  of  chief 
importance. 

Further  back  in  time,  during  the  period  prior  to  the  as- 
cension of  our  Lord,  the  attempt  to  identify  and  trace  this 
James  among  the  many  allusions  to  persons  bearing  this 
name  has  been  found  very  perplexing,  and  not  a  little  un- 
certain. 

We  first  attend  to  his  later  history — the  matters  of  special 
importance. 

1.  The  James  of  our  espistle  was  not  the  brother  of  the 
Apostle  John,  the  "discij)le  whom  Jesus  loved" — sons  of 
Zebedee;  for  this  James  suffered  martyrdom  under  Herod 
Antipas  (A.  D.  44)  as  we  read  Acts  12  :  2.  Our  epistle 
was  written  several  years  later. 

2.  With  reasonable  certainty  this  was   the  same  James 


INTRODUCTION.  309 

who  was  prominent  during  the  apostolic  age  in  the  church 
at  Jerusalem,  to  whom  Peter  requested  that  his  escape  from 
prison  (Acts  12  :  17)  might  be  immediately  reported ; — 
*'Go,  show  these  things  unto  James  and  to  the  brethren." 
He  is  also  the  same  whose  voice  and  opinion  seem  to  have  led 
the  decision  of  the  celebrated  Council  at  Jerusalem  (A.  D. 
50)  as  we  read  in  Acts  15,  when  the  apostles  and  elders 
came  together  to  consider  the  question  of  enforcing  circum- 
cision upon  Gentile  converts;  where,  first  ''all  the  multi- 
tude kept  silence  and  gave  audience  to  Barnabas  and  Paul 
declaring  what  God  had  wrought  among  the  Gentiles  by 
them";  and  after  the  recital  of  this  story,  James  answered, 
rehearsing  the  facts  of  the  case  and  the  correspondence  of 
these  facts  with  ancient  prophecy,  closing  with  these  signifi- 
cant words  : — "  Wherefore,  my  sentence  is  that  we  trouble 
not  them,"  etc.;  ''And  it  pleased  the  apostles  and  elders  with 
the  whole  church  "  to  indorse  his  sentence  [expressed  opin- 
ion], and  to  make  up  their  written  decision  accordingly. 
This  shows  us  James  in  the  Jerusalem  Council. 

We  find  him  again  at  Jerusalem,  prominent  before  any 
other  man  there,  in  the  account  of  Paul's  visit  (Acts  21 :  18) 
about  A.  D.  58:  "Paul  w^nt  in  with  us  unto  James,  and 
all  the  elders  were  present."  There  Paul  rehearsed  to  them 
what  God  had  wrought  by  his  ministry  among  the  Gentiles. 
They  heard  it  with  joyful  gratitude  and  gave  him  the  best 
advice  they  could  suggest,  how  to  allay  the  violent  prejudices 
of  the  many  thousand  Jewish  believers  who  w^ere  intensely 

zealous  of  the  law. To  this  same  James,  it  seems  obvious 

that  we  must  refer  the  allusions  which  appear  in  Paul's  let- 
ter to  the  Galatians,  viz.  (1 :  18,  19),  "  I  went  up  to  Jerusa- 
lem to  see  Peter  and  abode  with  him  fifteen  days.  But  other 
of  the  apostles  saw  I  none,  save  James,  the  Lord's  brother." 

Also  2:  9-12:    "  AVhen    James,  Cephas  [Peter]  and 

John  who  seemed  to  be  pillars,"  etc. — "  For  before  that  cer- 
tain came  from  James,  he  [Peter]  did  eat  with  the  Gentiles ; 
but  when  they  were  come,  he  withdrew  and  separated  him- 
self, fearing  them  w'hich  were  of  the  circumcision."  This 
presents  James  as  a  leading  mind  in  the  church  at  Jerusa- 
lem, and  at  that  time  specially  zealous  on  the  pending  ques- 
tion of  circumcising  Gentile  converts. All  these  references 

to  James  by  Luke  in  the  Acts  and  by  Paul  to  the  Galatians, 
point  very  manifestly  to  the  writer  of  our  epistle. 

Pushing  our  inquiry  back  in  time  to  the  persons  bearing 
the  name  "  James"  in  the  gospel  history,  the  subject  becomes 
14 


310  INTRODUCTION. 

complicated  and  the  references  perplexing.  The  main  issue 
lies  between  (a)  James,  named  among  "the  brethren  of  the 
Lord  ",  and  (b)  James,  son  of  Alpheus,  named  in  the  group 
of  the  twelve  chosen  disciples. 

(a)  The  names  of  the  group  defined  and  known  ^s  *'  the 
brethren  of  the  Lord"  appear  in  Matt.  13:  55  and  Mark 
6:  3  ; — viz.,  "James,  Joses,  Simon,  Judas",  to  which  refer- 
ences we  may  add  Paul's  words  in  Gal.  1  :  19; — "James, 
the  Lord's  brother." 

These  "  brethren  of  the  Lord"  are  spoken  of  in  a  general 
way  without  their  several  names  in  Matt.  12 :  46-48  and  in 
its  parallel,  Mark  3:  31,  32,  Also  in  John  2  :  12  and  7  : 
3,  5  and  Acts  1 :  14  (where  they  are  broadly  distinguished 
from  the  apostles),  and  in  1  Cor.  9:  5.  All  the  allusions  to 
them  are  quite  definite  to  the  point  of  their  being  a  well- 
known  family,  i.  e.,  brothers  by  at  least  one  common  parent, 
and  should  therefore  be  accounted  the  lineal  hrethren  of  the 
Lord  unless  very  strong  reasons  appear  to  modify  the  nat- 
ural construction. 

(h.)  The  group  of  the  twelve  disciples  are  named  in  Matt. 
10  :  13,  Mark  3  :  18,  Luke  6  :  15,  and  Acts  1  :  13.  In  all, 
James  is  the  son  of  Alpheus ;  and  by  Luke  twice  (in  his 
gospel  and  in  his  Acts)  Judas  or  Jude  (not  Iscariot)  is  called 

the  brother  of  James. In  one  of  these  groups  we  must 

look  for  the  James  who  wrote  our  epistle.  Some  critics  at- 
tempt to  find  him  in  both  groups,  assuming  that  it  is  the 
same  James  throughout ;  but  this  seems  to  me  very  improb- 
able. 

(a.)  In  favor  of  finding  our  author  in  the  first  named 
group — among  "the  brethren  of  the  Lord" — are  tliese  con- 
siderations : 

(1.)  That  Paul  (Gal.  1:  19)  calls  the  James  whom  he 
found  so  prominent  at  Jerusalem  "  the  Lord's  brother." 

(2.)  That  Paul  records  a  special  appearance  of  the  Lord 
to  James,  soon  after  his  resurrection :  "  After  that  he  was 
seen  of  James;  then  of  all  the  apostles"  (1  Cor.  15:  7). 
Tliis  should  be  considered  in  its  relations  to  what  John  has 
said  (John  7:  3,  5)  to  the  effect  that  then  his  brethren  did 
not  believe  on  him. 

(3  )  That  neither  our  author  James  nor  Jude  his  brother 
(author  of  the  short  epistle)  speaks  of  himself  as  an  apos- 
tle, but  only  as  "a  servant" — James  says:  "Of  God  and 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;"  Judo  simply:  "Of  Christ,  and 
brother  of  James." 


INTRODUCTION.  311 

(4.)  "  The  brethren  of  the  Lord  "  are  broadly  distingiushed 
from  the  original  twelve  in  Acts  1:13,  14,  where  the  eleven 
(Iscariot  no  longer  with  them)  are  definitely  named,  and 
then  besides  them  are  "  the  women  and  Mary  the  mother 
of  Jesus  and  his  brethren  "  At  this  time  they  were  praying 
men  in  the  Christian  brotherhood- 

(6.)  Over  against  these  considerations  and  in  favor  of 
finding  our  author  among  the  original  twelve,  are  these 
points : 

(1.)  It  seems  natural  and  almost  necessary  that  a  man  so 
prominent  in  the  ministerial  and  pastoral  work  should  have 
been  one  of  the  twelve.  Jesus  chose  and  trained  that  group 
of  twelve  to  lead  in  organizing  his  gospel  kingdom  ;  to  hold 
places  of  chief  prominence  and  responsibility  in  the  found- 
ing and  care  of  the  first-formed  churches — among  which 
none  were  greater  that  this  at  Jerusalem. 

(2.)  It  has  seemed  difficult  to  suppose  that  our  author — 
the  leading  pastor,  not  to  say  bishop  of  the  Jerusalem  church, 
should  have  been  one  of  those  "brethren  of  the  Lord" 
who  are  seen  (John  7 :  3,  5)  not  believing  in  Jesus,  but  in 
a  skeptical  and  adverse  attitude  as  to  his  claims.  Indeed  no 
evidence  appears  of  their  being  converted  to  faith  in  Jesua 
at  any  point  prior  to  his  crucifixion. 

(3.)  The  fact  that  on  the  cross  Jesus  committed  his 
mother  to  the  care  of  the  beloved  John,  son  of  Zebedee, 
passing  by  those  four  brethren  of  his  who  so  clearly  appear 
throughout  the  gospel  history  as  in  the  fiimily  with  his 
mother,  seems  to  signify  that  they  w^re  not  the  men  to  be 
found,   so   soon  after,   at  the  head  of  great   churches  and 

writing  epistles   as  ** servants  of  Jesus  Christ." But  to 

this  it  may  be  replied  that  grace  sometimes  makes  great  and 
rapid  changes  in  human  character,  of  which  Paul  was  a  no 
less  striking  example. 

These  are  the  leading  considerations  bearing  upon  the 
question — In  which  of  these  groups  shall  we  find  our  author? 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  add  that  the  whole  question  is 
rather  complicated  than  cleared  by  the  names  of  "  James 
and  Joses  "  which  appear  as  sons  of  a  certain  Mary,  present 
at  the  crucifixion.  Matthew  says  (27 :  56),  ''  Mary  the 
mother  of  James  and  Joses; "Mark  (15:  40),  Mary  the 
mother  of  James  the  less  and  of  Joses;"  Luke  (24:  10) — 
"Mary  the  mother  of  James."  Yet  this  Mary  is  clearly 
distinguished  from  Mary,  the  Lord's  mother. 

The  exact  relationship  of  this  group  of  Mary's  and  "  the 


312  INTRODUCTION. 

brethren  of  the  Lord  "  is  not  clearly  defined.  The  frequent 
recurrence  of  the  same  name — no  less  than  five  several 
Jameses  being  supposed  to  appear  in  the  gospel  history — 
conduces  to  the  perplexity  of  this  problem. 

In  view  of  all  the  evidence  it  seems  to  me  reasonably 
certain  that  James,  the  well-known  and  honored  pastor  of 
the  church  at  Jerusalem  wrote  this  epistle.  With  high 
probability  he  was  one  of  ''the  brethren  of  the  Lord." 
Yet  I  would  not  speak  on  this  latter  point  with  entire  con- 
fidence, and  least  of  all  with  the  spirit  of  dogmatism.  The 
subject  has  grave  difficulties  and  the  evidence  is  not  so  clear 
as  to  put  this  point  beyond  question.  It  is  strongly  indicated 
that  he  was  a  relative  of  Jesus,  i  e. ,  a  brother  by  one  par- 
ent or  both ;  a  cousin  or  nephew ;  or  in  some  other  of  the 
possible  grades  of  relationship  which  the  Hebrews  might  in- 
clude under  the  term  "brother."  A  more  precise  identifi- 
cation will  involve  doubtful  points  over  which  it  were  of 
little  use  to  speculate  and  which  may  best  be  left  in  their 
predestined  uncertainty. 

Let  it  be  noticed  that  this  James,  whether  the  son  of  Alph- 
eus  and  one  of  the  original  twelve,  or  one  of  "  the  four  breth- 
ren of  the  Lord,"  was  not,  like  Paul ,  a  Pharisee ;  was  not 
brought  up  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel ;  was  not,  through  early  life, 
a  resident  of  Jerusalem.  He  was  not  therefore  by  his  ante- 
cedents a  second  Paul,  but  was  a  man  whose  early  culture 
and  training  were  had  under  influences  of  far  other  sort. 
In  common  with  nearly  all  the  twelve  he  was  of  Galilee, 
reared  in  comparatively  humble  life,  remote  from  the  great 
religious  centers  of  Judaistic  and  Pharisaic  influence.  If  we 
may  assume  that  he  was  of  the  group  known  as  "  the  breth- 
ren of  the  Lord,"  having  his  early  home  under  the  same 
roof,  around  the  same  table,  pursuing  the  same  industrial 
avocations,  under  the  same  parental  nurture  as  Jesus  him- 
self,— our  conceptions  of  his  early  surroundings  may  be- 
come somewhat  definite.  We  may  suppose  it  due  to  his 
imbibing  the  prevalent  notions  of  his  Jewish  countrymen  as 
to  their  nation's  Messiah  that  he  was  so  slow  to  recognize  the 
true  mission  of  Jesus.  Whether  other  influences — of  jeal- 
ousy, selfishness,  the  more  subtle  fi)rnis  of  our  common  hu- 
man depravity — held  him  back  from  heart-conversion  till 
perhaps  the  great  crisis  hour  of  the  resurrection,  and  until, 
in  the  fullness  of  a  brother's  love,  Jesus  ap[)eared  to  him 
singly,  and  in  the  same  hour  broke  his  proud  heart  in  con- 
trition  and   swept   away    his    skepticism,  and    sealed  him 


INTRODUCTION.  313 

as  thenceforward  a  full  and  firm  disciple  of  his  risen  Lord — 
these  points  may  come  short  of  certainty,  yet  not  of  high 
probability,  and  are  by  no  means  alien  from  the  methods 
which  Jesus  has  often  taken  to  convert  and  seal  such  men 
as  he  has  occasion  to  use  for  great  service  in  his  kingdom. 

How  soon  after  his  conversion  he  rose  to  distinction  in 

the  infant  church,  we  can  not  determine  precisely.  In  New 
Testament  history  he  conjes  to  view  first  in  Gal.  1:  19, 
which  being  supposably  three  years  after  Saul's  conversion 
may  be  dated  A.  D.  40 — ten  years  later  than  the  scenes 
of  Acts  1  and  2. — Next,  he  is  seen  at  the  date  of  Peter's 
release  from  prison  (Acts  12 :  17,  A.  D.  44)  four  years  later 
than  the  preceding  notice.  And  next  at  the  Jerusalem  coun- 
cil (Acts  15) :  usually  dated  A.  D.  50. — These  dates  may 
sufiice  to  show  proximately  how  soon  after  entering  the 
Christian  life,  he  came  into  prominent  position  among  the 
churches  and  in  the  apostolic  fraternity. 

II.  Date. 

Critics  differ  widely  upon  the  date  of  this  epistle,  varying 
from  A.  D.  45  to  A.  D.  62.  In  support  of  the  early  date 
it  is  argued  that  if  it  had  been  written  after  the  great  Jeru- 
salem Council,  it  would  have  contained  some  allusion  to  the 
decrees  of  that  council — a  point  which  would  have  weight 
if  the  subject  of  circumcising  Gentile  converts  had  been 
touched  in  this  epistle.  But  as  it  is  not,  the  argument  has 
no  force  at  all.  Why  should  the  author  refer  to  that  comicil 
in  a  letter  which  makes  not  the  remotest  allusion  to  the 
subject  there  discussed  and  acted  upon? 

In  my  view  the  late  date  has  very  decisive  considerations 
in  its  support;  viz: 

1.  The  entire  silence  of  the  epistle  on  the  question  of  cir- 
cumcision. We  must  account  for  this  silence  on  one  or  both 
of  these  two  grounds : — The  decline  of  interest  on  this  sub- 
ject in  the  Jewish  mind  generally,  due  to  the  lapse  of  time 
and  the  expulsive  power  of  new  and  deeper  interests,  or  the 
less  vigorous  beat  of  the  ritualistic  pulse  in  the  extremities 
of  the  Jewish  body  politic — the  most  intense  action  being  at 
the  national  heart  (Jerusalem)  ;  and  the  least  intense,  among 
Jews  dispersed  far  abroad  in  other  lands.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  this  epistle  was  addressed  to  the  latter  class.  But 
it  is  highly  probable  that  lapse  of  time,  coupled  perhaps 
with  better  ideas  of  Christianity,  had,  prior  to  this  epistle, 


314  INTRODUCTION. 

toned  down  the  Intense  heat  of  national  feeling  on  this  point 
of  circumcision. 

2.  Emigration  and  dispersion  were  not  only  a  continuous 
but  an  augmenting  stream  from  the  great  Pentecost  onward 
to  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  (A.  D.  30-70).  The  Jerusalem 
pastor  saw  his  flock  melting  away  and  making  homes  for 
themselves  in  remote  cities  and  lands.  Especially  was  this 
the  case  during  the  last  score  of  these  years — (A.  D.  50-70). 
Throughout  this  period,  political  unrest  and  frequent  scenes 
of  bloody  violence  in  Judea  and  in  Jerusalem  drove  the 
better  class,  especially  the  Christians,  rapidly  from  their  an- 
cestral homes  into  other  countries.  Hence  the  demand  for 
this  epistle  from  the  heart  of  their  pastor  at  the  old  home 
was  continually  gathering  strength,  so  that  the  later  date 
becomes  for  this  reason  more  probable  than  the  earlier. 

3.  "  The  coming  of  the  Lord,"  said  to  be  then  "  drawing 
nigh"  (5:  7,  8)  must  certainly  be  or  at  least  must  include  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  which  even  the  Jews  of  the  disper- 
sion must  feel  as  a  great  national  calamity,  and  a  sore  trial  to 
their  faith  and  patience.  This  dread  event  Jesus  had  located 
in  time  within  the  life  of  some  then  living,  and  hence,  near 
the  close  of  the  generation  that  heard  those  words  from  his 
lips  (Matt.  16  :  28  and  24  :  34).  This  fixes  the  date  of  our 
epistle  with  reasonable  certainty  between  A.  D.  60  and  65. 

III.  We  look  for  a  moment  to  the  people  addressed,  ask- 
ing ivJio  they  were ;  luhere ;  and  their  leading  characteristics. 

The  address  itself  answers  thus  far ;  Jeivs,  and  Jews  dis- 
persed abroad,  in  various  lands,  not  otherwise  defined.  Peter 
wrote  similarly  to  Jews  living  in  foreign  countries  as  the 
word  translated  ''strangers"  signifies.  He  subjoins  their 
locaHties  more  definitely,  viz.,  ''  Pontus,  Galatia,  Cappadocia, 
Asia  [Minor]  and  Bithynia,"  all  of  which  are  provinces 
north  and  east  of  Palestine,  spreading  over  the  northern 
part  of  the  broad  district  between  the  waters  of  the^  Medi- 
terranean and  the  Euphrates.  The  presence  of  Jews  in  Gal- 
atia is  indicated  also  in  Paul's  letter  to  them,  for  the  *'  Gal- 
atians "  to  whom  he  wrote  were  chiefly  Jews. 

As  to  their  leading  charadeinsUcs ;  we  see  in  this  epistle  no 
trace  of  the  Pharisaic  element  which  is  patent  in  the  Jews 
whom  Paul  addressed  at  Rome  and  in  Galatia,  viz.,  the  no- 
tion of  saving  merit  in  works  of  laxo.  This  notion  became  a 
strong  and  constant  temptation  to  disj)lace  gospel  faith  and 

put  personal  righteousness  in  its  stead. Yet  further,  let 

it   be  carefully  noted  ;   This  Pharisaic  notion  of  law-right- 


INTEODUCTION.  315 

eoiisness  was  profoundly,  fearfully  ritualistic.  Its  righteous- 
ness was  that  of  rites  and  ceremonies — not  that  of  sound 
morality  and  intrinsic  righteousness.  The  very  righteous 
Pharisee  paid  most  punctiliously  his  tithes  of  mint  and  anise, 
but  had  the  least  possible  thought  or  care  for  judgment  or 
mercy — the  love  of  God,  or  the  love  of  his  suffering  neigh- 
bor. The  depravity  of  his  heart  found  scope  in  these  two 
directions :  pride  of  his  faultless,  stainless  observance  of  the 
Pharisaic  law ;  and  utter  recklessness  of  the  weightier  mat- 
ters. This  amounted  to  a  full  license  for  covetousness,  op- 
pression of  the  poor,  and  whatever  other  wicked  ways  might 
be  congenial  to  his  taste  and  not  offensive  to  his  self-made 
standard  of  morality.  Against  such  Pharisaism  and  its  le- 
gitimate results  Paul  reasoned  mightily  in  his  epistle  to  the 
Romans  and  also  to  the  Galatians.  The  Colossians,  too,  were 
by  no  means  fully  emancipated  from  bondage  to  ritualism 
and  its  notions  of  meritorious   righteousness. 

The  Jews  to  whom  James  wrote  were  manifestly  swerving 
from  the  true  gospel  in  another  direction.  They  abused  the 
doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith  in  Christ  unto  a  license  to  sin. 
They  divorced  faith  from  obedience ;  the  receiving  of  Christ 
from  essential  morality — and  so  made  their  Christianity  the 
minister  of  sin — a  system  of  indulgences.  They  said :  We 
are  to  be  saved  by  our  faith  alone — whether  or  not  it  shall 
"  work  by  love ;"  whether  or  not  it  shall  inspire  us  to  living 
consecration  and  hearty  obedience  to  the  law  of  Christ. 
Whereas  gospel  faith  has  two  essential  elements — intellectual 
belief,  and  the  heart's  willing  homage  and  obedience  to  believed 
gospel  truth;  their  method  of  abusing  the  gospel  was  to 
divorce  these  two  elements  from  each  other,  and  then  pro- 
fessedly receive  the  first,  but  utterly  ignore  the  second. 
Obviously  this  false  notion  of  faith  opened  the  door  to  any 
amount  of  immorality.  By  it,  the  true  gospel  was  shorn 
of  its  glory ;  Christian  faith  was  emasculated,  dishonored, 
disgraced.  Nothing  short  of  the  most  emphatic  protest  and 
the  most  powerful  setting  forth  of  the  fallacy  and  ruin  of 
such  sentiments  could  meet  this  faithful  pastor's  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility for  the  straying  members  of  his  early  Jerusalem 
flock. 

IV.  The  special  objects  of  this  epistle  will  now  be  ap- 
parent. In  general  James  sought  to  teach  and  enforce  a 
pure  gospel  morality;  to  plead  earnestly  for  an  intrinsic 
righteousness.  Especially  he  must  explode  the  ruinous  mis- 
take of  his  brethren  as  to  salvation  by  a  sort  of  faith  which 


316  INTRODUCTION. 

wrought  not  toward  works  of  obedience,  love  and  npriglit- 
ness.  He  must  needs  testify  to  them  that  such  faith  is  in 
the  gospel  sense  no  faith  at  all — is  powerless,  and  therefore 
only  as  good  as  dead ;  and,  of  course,  altogether  unavailing 
to  the  point  of  salvation.  It  could  neither  please  God  now 
nor  insure  heaven  hereafter. 

It  is  one  of  the  felicities  of  our  incomparable  Scriptures 
that  they  were  written,  not  all  by  one  author,  but  variously, 
by  many ;  not  by  one,  seeing  all  truth  from  one  sole  point  of 
view,  but  by  many,  each  seeing  truth  from  his  own  point. 
There  is  Paul,  converted  from  Pharisaic  thought  and  life,  and 
now  battling  mightily  against  the  mischievous  errors  which 
half-converted  Pharisaic  Jews  were  bringing  into  the  gospel 
scheme.  Of  course  he  had  strong  words  in  defense  of  sal- 
vation by  fiith  alone,  as  distinguished  from  salvation  by 
means  of  Pharisaic  righteousness  in  what  they  chose  to  call 
"  works  of  law." 

The  thought  and  phrase  of  James  ran  in  another  line  en- 
tirely. How  much  or  how  little  he  may  have  met  with 
Pharisaic  notions  of  "  works  of  law,"  he  uses  the  term 
"works"  in  entirely  another  sense,  as  if  he  utterly  ig- 
nored or  even  had  never  known  the  Pharisaic  theory.  For 
certainly  "  works"  Avith  James  are  not  ritualities,  but  are  the 
righteousness  of  the  heart  and  of  the  life;  are  not  begotten 
of  pride,  and  observed  as  a  sole  ground  of  salvation ;  but 
are  begotten  of  faith  and  wrought  by  and  through  the 
heart's  love  of  believed  truth.  In  other  words,  with  James, 
"works"  are  the  fruit  and  therefore  the  evidence  of  a  true 

faith. But  over  against  this,  the  Pharisaic   "  works  of 

law "  which  Paul  condemns  as  no  gospel  but  as  really  sub- 
versive of  its  great  truths  and  principles,  were  wholly  and 
only  a  righteousness  of  man's  own  devising,  alien  from  in- 
trinsic right  and  from  the  law  of  gospel  love;  incompatible 
with  faith  in  Christ,  and  therefore  fatal  to  the  salvation  of 
the  soul. 

This  viewing  of  gospel  truth  from  various  stand-points 
conduces  greatly  to  the  rounding  out  of  a  full-orbed  system. 
It  serves  to  guard  against  all  the  various  perversions  to 
Avhicli  the  gospel  is  exposed.  Paul  had  perversions  to  com- 
l)at  m  one  direction ;  James  in  another.  The  born  Pharisee, 
coming  in  contact  with  the  gospel  scheme,  had  his  special 
dangers  to  encounter,  coming  in  through  the  notions  common 
in  his  godless  life:  the  Jew,  never  a  Pharisee,  Avas  exposed, 
like  other  men,  to  run  gospel  faith  into  Autiuomianism,  i.  e., 


INTRODUCTION.  317 

to  make  liis  faith  in  Christ  a  substitute  for  sound  moraHty 
and  to  assume  that  so  he  was  honoring  the  gospel  and  doing 
God  service. Thus  under  the  wisdom  of  God  in  con- 
structing his  written  revelation  by  means  of  the  diverse 
agency  of  various  inspired  minds,  we  have  a  wonderfully 
perfect  Bible.  Truly  all  Scripture  is  not  only  heaven-in- 
spired, but  is  constructed  with  such  manifold  variety  that  it 
avails  to  ''make  the  man  of  God  perfect,  thoroughly  fur- 
nished"  for  teaching   all  truth  and   for  refuting  all  the 

multiform  phases  of  error. It  is  however  only  a  part,  a 

small  part  of  this  epistle  that  James  devotes  to  his  discus- 
sion and  refutation  of  Antinomianism.  He  discusses  and 
enjoins  many  forms  of  gospel  morality.  His  epistle  goes 
deeply  into  the  science  of  ethics.  It  is  rich  in  the  illustra- 
tion and  applications  of  the  Christian,  eternal  law  of  love 
to  our  neighbor.  The  details  need  not  be  given  here.  We 
shall  find  these  the  staple  points  of  his  epistle. 

The  great  doctrines  and  teachings  of  such  an  epistle  are 
always  in  order.  No  generation  of  our  kind  has  ever  lived 
yet  that  did  not  need  line  upon  line  in  these  grand  lessons 
of  intrinsic  righteousness. 


THE  GENERAL  EPISTLE  OF  JAMES. 


CHAPTER    I. 


After  the  briefest  possible  introduction  of  himself  to  his  read- 
ers (v.  1)  James  speaks  of  trials  and  of  their  divinely  purposed 
benefits ;  the  full-orbed  development  of  Christian  character,  includ- 
ing wisdom  in  practical  life  vrhich  God  gives  when  it  is  sought  in 
faith  (2-8);  life  s  changes,  even  when  most  extreme,  should  be  ac- 
cepted joyfully  (9-12),  for  God's  faithful  love  is  in  them  and  never 
a  purpose  to  ensnare  souls  into  deeper  sin;  how  temptation 
works  in  depraved  hearts  toward  and  unto  sinning  (13-15);  but 
God  is  the  Giver  of  all  good,  never  the  Author  of  evil  (16,  17); 
through  whose  good  will  comes  our  new  birth  unto  holiness  by 
means  of  his  word  of  truth  (18),  which  word  we  should  therefore 
hear  with  the  utmost  diligence  and  jealous  avoidance  of  sin 
(19-21),  obeying  and  not  hearing  only  (22-25).  Pure  religion  is 
tested  by  unselfish  help  of  the  helpless  and  by  shunning  the 
world's  moral  pollutions  (26,  27). 

1.  James,  a  servant  of  God  and  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
to  the  twelve  tribes  which  are  scattered  abroad,  greeting. 

The  introduction  has  discussed  the  questions :  Who  was  this 
James?    Also,  Who  and  where  were  the  people  whom  he  wrote? 

The  word  "Greeting"  translates  a  Greek  word  which,  literally 
taken,  bids  them  rejoice ;  but  in  usage  is  the  heart's  expres- 
sion of  its  hope  and  prayer  that  the  friends  addressed  may  have 
cause  for  joy.  Brethren,  I  wish  you  all  blessings!  My  soul 
greets  you ! 

2.  My  brethren,  count  it  all  joy  when  ye  fall  into  divers 
temptations ; 

3.  Knowing  thisy  that  the  trying  of  your  faith  worketh 
patience. 

4.  But  let  patience  have  her  perfect  work,  that  ye  may  be 
l^erfect  and  entire,  wanting  nothing. 

It  is  vital  to  a  just  understanding  of  tliis  chapter  to  note  that 
our  English  words,  tempt,  temptation,  arc  ambiguous,  being  used 
sometimes  in  a  bad  sense;  sometimes  in  a  good;  i.  e.,  sometimes 
(818) 


JAMES. — CHAP.  I.  319 

involving  the  purpose  to  ensnare  into  sin  ;  and  sometimes  no  such 
purpose  at  all,  but  only  the  purpose  of  strengthening  virtue. 
Used  of  man  tempting  his  fellow-man,  or  of  his  lusts  tempting 
himself,  it  often  has  the  former — the  bad — sense;  but  used  of 
God,  it  has  never  the  bad  sense  but  only  the  good.  This  will  ap- 
pear   more  fully  below  (v.    13-15). Here,  the  "falling  into 

divers  temptations"  refers  to  God's  ways  in  providence  which 
bring  stern  trial  upon  the  Christian's  virtue.  James  exhorts  his 
brethren  not  to  shrink  from  such  trials ;  not  to  fear  them ;  bub 
even  to  "  count  them  all  joy  " — not  that  chastening  is  ever  for 
the  moment  joyous,  or  otherwise  than  grievous;  but  because 
afterward  it  yieldeth  the  peaceful  fruits  of  righteousness.  Let 
them  rejoice,  therefore,  remembering  that  God's  hand  always 
moves  in  love  and  in  profound  wisdom,  purposing  with  well-ordered 
endeavor  to  work  out  a  richer,  purer  patience — patience  in  the 
sense  of  cheerful,  submissive  endurance.  This  Christian  patience 
must  needs  have  time  and  scope  for  an  all-sided  development.  It 
has  a  great  and  often  complicated  work  to  do  in  human  souls. 
You  will  not  be  likely  to  know  so  well  as  God  does  how  many 
rough  points  in  your  moral  constitution  may  need  to  be  smoothed 
down ;  how  many  perverse  elements  may  need  to  be  rooted  out 
by  the  vigorous,  faithful  hand  of  chastening  affliction.  But  re- 
member ;  God  has  the  grandest  and  the  best  ideal  of  Christian 
character,  toward  which  he  works  evermore.  The  trials  may 
need  to  be  diversified  almost  infinitely  in  order  to  bring  out  the 
complete  development  of  sweet,  quiet  patience  under  God's  chas- 
tening but  loving  hand.  He  does  not  propose  to  stop  short  of  a 
noble,  full-orbed  Christian  character.  He  sets  his  heart  upon 
this  :  therefore  trust  thou  his  love  and  wisdom  for  the  best  possi- 
ble methods ;  and  count  it  your  supreme  joy  to  have  fallen  into 
the  training  hand  and  under  the  faithful  discipline  of  such  a 
Father. 

The  reader  should  not  fail  to  notice  that  in  this  argument  and 
exhortation,  the  underlying  assumption  is  that  the  high,  the 
really  supreme  end  God  has  in  view  with  us  is — to  make  and 
mold  character^  to  bring  his  children  onward  and  upward  to  the 
very  highest  perfection  and  finish  of  their  moral  and  spiritual  life. 
Of  course  it  follows  that  in  our  thought  also  as  well  as  in  his, — 
in  our  practical  judgment — this  should  be  accounted  the  supreme 
end  of  life.  We  should  never  assume  to  be  wiser  than  God.  We 
ought  to  accept  most  thankfully  his  aim  and  plan  concerning  our- 
selves as  the  very  best  possible.  Therefore,  let  us  count  it  all  joy 
when  we  have  the  present,  conscious  proofs  that  God  has  us  in 
hand  and  is  pressing  on  his  own  purifying  work  in  our  moral 
nature  and  character.  Be  it  painful  to  the  flesh ;  be  it  trying  to 
the  spirit;  yet  how  should  we  hail  it  with  unutterable  gladness, 
for  God's  hand  is  shaping  and  Avorking  it  all  that  we  may  be  per- 
fect and  entire,  lacking  in  nothing.  What  can  be  for  one  mo- 
ment compared  with  a  fully  developed  virtuous  character — a 
spirit   chastened  to  all  sweetness  of  submission,  to  all  purity 


320  JAMES. — CHAP.    I. 

of  purpose,  to  all  love  and  humility — to  the  very  spirit  of  heaven 
brought  to  maturity  under  the  discipline  of  earth! Com- 
paring this  result  of  earthly  life  with  any  thing,  nay  with  every 
thing  else,  how  great  it  is!  We  may  ftiil  of  riches;  yet  hav- 
ing tins,  we  arc  rich  eternally.  Our  name  may  be  little  known,  but 
God  Avill  know  it!  Many  of  our  cherished  plans  of  life  may  come 
to  nought ;  but  if  the  great  plan  of  God  for  us  is  realized,  shall 
we  not  in  the  coming  world  rejoice  that  his  wisdom  looked  further 
and  planned  better  than  ours  ? 

5.  If  any  of  you  lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask  of  God,  that 
giveth  to  all  meM  liberally,  and  upbraideth  not ;  and  it  shall 
be  given  him. 

6.  But  let  him  ask  in  faith,  nothing  Avavering :  for  he  that 
wavereth  is  like  a  wave  of  the  sea  driven  with  the  wind  and 
tossed. 

7.  For  let  not  that  man  think  that  he  shall  receive  any 
thing  of  the  Lord. 

8.  A  double-minded  man  is  unstable  in  all  his  ways. 

The  cursory  reader  of  this  chapter  is  liable  to  assume  tiiat  the 
subject  changes  here,  making  the  attainment  of  wisdom  a  new 
theme.  So  doing,  he  would  miss  some  of  the  best  of  the  sense, 
for  certainly  there  is  no  change  of  subject  here.  Our  English 
translation  ought  to  have  followed  the  original  in  the  point  of  giv- 
ing the  same  word  for  '  lack"  as  in  the  verse  previous  for  "  want- 
ing." This  word  has  suggested  the  closest  connection.  "  That 
ye  may  be  perfect,  lacking  nothing.'  Yet  if  any  of  you  should 
lack  this  one  quality  of  the  Christian  character — wisdom  to  bear 
yourself  well  in  all  emergencies ;  wisdom  to  do  always  the  right 
thing  rather  than  the  wrong,  then  ask  God  for  the  wisdom  you 
need.  Thus  wisdom  is  thought  of  here  as  one  of  the  elements  of 
a  fully  developed  Christian  character.  The  writer  does  not  forget 
what  he  is  talking  about,  nor  has  he  finished  one  topic  and  ad- 
vanced to  another,  for  we  shall  notice  below  (v.  9-12)  that  his 
mind  is  still  upon  those  reverses  of  fortune — those  sudden  transi- 
tions from  riches  to  poverty,  abundance  to  want,  or  (reversing 
the  order)  from  poverty  to  competence,  in  which  so  much  of  our 
earthly  trial  consists. 

Wisdom,  practically  considered,  is  the  shaping  of  means  to 
ends,  devising  the  best  meaures  to  reach  the  ends  we  seek.  Emer- 
gencies, such  as  the  writer  here  assumes  to  be  present,  make  a 
very  special  demand  for  this  practical  wisdom.  Indeed  the 
whole  of  human  life  calls  for  wisdom.  ]vesponsible  trusts  de- 
mand it;  the  control  of  our  own  spiritdemands  it;  the  regulation 
of  daily  conduct,  the  bearing  of  ourselves  prudently  under  any 
and  every  form  of  trial,  call  for  wisdom.  If  therefore  any  man 
is  conscious  of  lacking  wisdom,  what  shall  he  do  but  ask  God  for 
it?  Precisely  this  is  the  thing  to  be  done.  And  for  liis  comfort 
let  him  know  that  God  givcth  it — not  alone  to  some  favored  sons 


JAMES. — CHAP.   I.  321 

of  good  fortune,  but  to  all;  and  not  in  stinted  but  in  liberal  meas- 
ure; and  better  yet — does  not  reproach  you  for  your  short-coming; 
does  not  retort  sharply  in  rebuke  of  your  folly — (ah,  but  lie 
might!)  What  a  sense  of  our  very  great  folly  he  must  often 
have !  But  He  is  infinitely  tender  and  forbearing.  He  will  never 
upbraid  you ! 

"And  it  shall  be  given  him."  In  the  writer's  view,  there  will 
be  no  failure  of  this  gift.  Nothing  can  be  relied  upon  more 
surely.  It  looks  toward  that  culture  of  heart  and  soul  upon 
which  God  sets  his  loving  paternal  heart,  and  he  can  not  with- 
hold it. 

"But  let  him  ask  in  faith,''  fully  assuming  the  love  of  his  great 
Father,  and  his  honest  purpose  to  help  at  every  point  toward  the 
utmost  and  best  spiritual  culture  of  his  yet  imperfect  children. 
It  would  be  most  cruel  to  our  Father's  heart  to  doubt  this!  How 
can  He  bear  such  doubting  in  the  bosoms  of  those  for  whom  he 

has  done  so   much  and   whom  he  has  loved   so   well! Then 

think  how  this  doubting  soul  is  tossed  up  and  down  as  if  nothing 
in  the  universe  were  certain!     For  if  we  can  not  trust  God's  love, 

what  can  we  ever  trust? The  figure  here — that  of  the  ocean 

wave,  wind-driven,  tempest-tossed,  never  at  rest — is  surely  very 
expressive.  A  soul  so  full  of  doubting  and  distrust  of  God, 
should  never  expect  blessings  from  his  hand.  The  two-minded 
man — forever  vacillating  between  little  faith  and  great  unbelief — 
will  be  unstable  in  every  thing. 

9.  Let  the  brother  of  low  degree  rejoice  in  that  he  is  ex- 
alted : 

10.  But  the  rich,  in  that  he  is  made  low :  because  as  the 
flower  of  the  grass  he  shall  pass  away. 

11.  For  the  sun  is  no  sooner  risen  with  a  burning  heat, 
but  it  withereth  the  grass,  and  the  flower  thereof  falleth, 
and  the  grace  of  the  fashion  of  it  perisheth :  so  also  shall 
the  rich  man  fade  away  in  his  ways. 

The  English  phrase — "of  low  degree" — means  naturally,  of 
low  social  standing — which  however  is  manifestly  thought  of  here 
as  a  natural  result  of  poverty.  The  Greek  word  means  poor. 
The  sense  of  humble  life  socially  comes  from  the  sentiments  and 

usages  of  society. If  God's  providences  lift  this   poor  man 

higher,  let  him*  rejoice  therein.  Yet  James  has  his  eye  specially 
upon  the  rich  man.  He  is  more  likely  to  fall  than  the  poor  to 
rise.  Indeed,  the  figure  which  compares  him  to  the  blooming 
flower  assumes  that  his  coming  down  is  according  to  the  order  of 
nature.  The  flower  of  the  grass  (especially  in  that  climate)  was 
destined  to  fade  totally  and  soon.  The  scorching  sun  smote  it 
but  once  and  it  withered  !  Its  beauty  perished  in  an  hour.  So 
too  shall  the  rich  man  fade  away  in  his  ways,  and  his  beauty 
perish. 

What  is  the  doctrine  here?  Apparently  this:  As  in  the  flower 
of  the  field,  this  early  fading  comes  by  natural  law  and  is  there- 


322  JAMES. — CHAP.  I. 

fore  to  be  always  expected,  so  the  rich  man's  glory  fades  by  a  law  of 
God's  moral  administration,  similarly  if  not  even  equally  swift 
and  sure;  for  God  must  seek  his  spiritual  culture  and  to  secure 
this  result,  must  (usually)  bring  him  low.  To  save  his  soul,  his 
riches  must  be  made  the  sacrifice.  Let  him  therefore  rejoice  in 
being  made  low,  for  it  signilies  that  God  has  taken  him  in  hand 
to  save  him  unto  riches  better  and  far  more  enduring. 

12.  Blessed  is  the  man  that  enduretli  temptation:  for 
when  he  is  tried,  he  shall  receive  the  crown  of  life,  which 
the  Lord  hath  promised  to  them  that  love  him. 

This  will  be  the  result  if  only  he  endures  the  trial.  Plainly, 
in  connection  with  what  immediately  precedes,  the  writer  as- 
sumes that  his  rich  brother  does  bow  submissively  to  the  reverse 

of  fortune  that  comes  upon  him. Blessed   is  the  man  in  any 

sphere  who  endures  the  discipline  God  permits  to  befall  him. 
"Temptation"   is  here  in  the   good,  not  the  bad  sense;  i.  e.,  in 

the  sense  of  trials  which  God  sends  upon  his  children. Tried 

and  thereby  proved  and  purified,  he  shall  receive  the  promised 
crown  of  life.  Let  him  hold  this  promise  before  his  eye  as  his 
inspiration  to  patient,  submissive  endurance,  turning  his  thought 
away  from  the  present  pain  and  disappointment  and  conflict,  to 
the  bright  reward  put  before  him  in  God's  word  of  promise. 

13.  Let  no  man  say  when  he  is  tempted,  I  am  tempted  of 
God :  for  God  can  not  be  tempted  with  evil,  neither  tempteth 
he  any  man : 

14.  But  every  man  is  tempted,  when  he  is  drawn  away 
of  his  own  lust,  and  enticed. 

15.  Then  when  lust  hath  conceived,  it  bringeth  forth  sin: 
and  sin,  when  it  is  finished,  bringeth  forth  death. 

James  has  seen  the  working  of  human  nature  and  knows  how 
to  anticipate  its  thought.  Men,  sorely  tried  by  providences  that 
seem  adverse,  are  sometimes  fearfully  tempted  thereby  to  say  in 
their  heart — This  is  too  bad ;  God  must  know  that  I  can  not  bear 
this;  Why  should  he  drive  me  into  sin?    I  must  think  he  intends 

it! liut  pause    and    think    how  horrible    the   thought!    how 

al)usive  and  even  blasphemous  the  implication!  Porno  tempta- 
tion to  do  evil  can  ever  reach  the  heart  of  God,  nor  can  he  possi- 
bly tempt  any  man  in  the  sense  of  intending  this  result,  or  shap- 
ing his  providences  to  make  men  sin.  Let  this  be  forever  held 
in  your  deepest  convictions:  God  /.s-  (jood  and  only  good!  lie 
has  good  ends  in  view  and  never  other  than  good. 

In  saying  that  "God  can  not  be  tempted  with  evil"  in  the 
sense  of  being  not  temptible  into  or  even  toward  sin,  James 
does  not  mean  to  deny  that  God  is  often  sorely  grieved  and  tried 
by  a])U8e  from  the  wicked.  He  does  mean  that  no  such  abuse 
can  possibly  draw  him  into  sin.     hi  the  sense  of  being  ensnared 


JAMES. — CHAP.  I.  323 

into  sin,  he  is  above  temptation.  In  the  same  sense  of  tempta- 
tion he  tempts  no  man.  The  trials  he  brings  upon  men  are  never 
designed  or  shaped  to  draw  them  into  sin. 

But  would  ye  know  the  way  men  are  led  into  sin  by  tempta- 
tion? This  is  it:  Man  is  tempted  into  sin  by  being  poAverfully 
drawn  and  driven  by  his  own  lusts  and  so  ensnared — (baited  like 
the  fishes,  the  word  used  here  often  means).  His  passions,  appe- 
tites, his  loves  of  pleasure  of  some  sort,  animal  or  spiritual,  of 
body  or  of  soul,  become  dangerously  excited,  and  he  indulges 
them  to  the  extent  of  fearfully  ensnaring  his  soul  into  sin.  The 
figure  used  here — lust  conceiving  and  bringing  forth  sin — is  no 
doubt  as  nearly  perfect  for  illustration  as  any  physical  process 
can  be  of  things  pertaining  to  mind  and  involving  moral 
activities.  Yet  it  must  always  be  considered  that  purely 
physical  law  vrorks  by  no  volition;  involves  no  free  will  and 
no  moral  responsibility  w^ithin  its  own  proper  sphere.  But  on 
the  other  hand  the  action  of  mind  is  totally  unlike  this,  for 
mind-action  must  involve  voluntary  choice,  the  real  consent  of 
the  will.  It  is  in  this  action  and  in  this  only  that  sin  can  lie. 
The  physical  antecedents  of  sin  should  always  be  broadly  dis- 
tinguished from  the  sin  itself.  In  the  former  lie  the  temptation, 
but  never  the  real  sin.  Sin  is  a  thing  of  mind,  not  of  body — a 
thing  of  free  choice,  not  of  mere  appetite  or  passion.  For  the 
man  who  denies  his  appetite  and  controls  his  passion  in  obedience 
to  the  law  of  conscience  and  of  God  is  in  this  act  not  only  with- 
out sin  but  may  be  eminently  virtuous. 

These  distinctions  are  supremely  vital  to  a  just  conception  of 
the  laws  and  processes  of  sinning. 

The  writer  carries  his  figurative  illustration  on  to  its  maturity, 
saying  that  when  sin  has  ripened  to  its  normal  fruitage,  it 
brings  forth  death.  This  is  evermore  the  wages  of  sin,  wages 
earned  both  under  natural  law  and  under  the  moral  administra- 
tion of  God's  government.  With  the  constitution,  physical  and 
moral,  which  God  has  given  us,  ruin  must  inevitably  follow  as  the 
ripened  fruit  of  sin;  and  at  the  same  time,  under  God's  moral  gov- 
ernment it  must  evermore  be  true  that  the  soul  that  sinneth 
shall  die  under  the  curse  of  the  law  which  sin  has  broken. 

16.  Do  not  err,  my  beloved  brethren. 

17.  Every  good  gift  and  every  perfect  gift  is  from  above, 
and  Cometh  down  from  the  Father  of  lights,  with  whom  is 
no  variableness,  neither  shadow  of  turning. 

18.  Of  his  own  will  begat  he  us  with  the  word  of  truth, 
that  we  should  be  a  kind  of  first-fruits  of  his  creatures. 

In  a  point  so  vital,  my  brethren,  I  beg  you  to  make  no  funda- 
mental mistake.  Every  good  gift  comes  down  from  God — every 
good  thing  but  no  evil:  no  temptation  to  sin,  in  the  just  sense 
of  those  words,  can  bfe  from  him.  All  the  energies  of  his  being, 
all  the  forces  of  his  universal  kingdom,  work  legitimately  to  pro- 


324  JAMES. — CHAP.  I. 

duce  good,  not  evil ;  are  devised  and  shaped  for  the  production 
of  good,  and  for  no  other  purpose. 

To  put  this  point  clearly,  by  means  of  a  pertinent  illustration : 
— consider  that  God  is  the  great  IMaker  and  Father  of  the  "  lights  " 
in  our  visible  heavens — those  great  luminaries — sun,  moon  and 
stars,  which  pour  upon  our  world  all  its  light  and  heat.  The 
record  by  Moses  of  the  creation  uses  the  same  word:  "God  said, 
Let  there  be  lights  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven ;  "  and  God 
formed  two  great  lights ;  the  greater  light  to  rule  the  day  and  the 
lesser  light  ^o  rule  the  night  (Gen.  1  :  14-18).  These  "lights," 
hoAvever,  are  variable — the  sun  varying  from  winter's  distance 
and  feebler  warmth  to  summer's  nearness  and  glowing  heat; 
withdrawn  also  by  night,  but  returning  by  day;  the  moon  also 
waxing  and  waning;  but  God,  the  great  Father  of  these  lights, 
has  neither  in  his  gifts  nor  in  the  love  of  his  heart,  any  varying 
moods  ;  has  no  changes  as  from  summer's  heat  to  winter's  cold, 
or  as  from  the  full-orbed  moon  to  its  scarcely  visible  rim  of  bright- 
ness. No ;  God's  face  shines  out  with  never-clouded  and  never- 
waning  glory.  When,  after  days  of  cold  and  storm,  the  great 
sun  pours  abroad  his  welcome  light  and  heat,  we  fitly  say — It  is  so 
like  the  face  of  God;  but  God's  face  never  withdraws  itself,  and 
in  his  light  there  is  "no  shadow  of  turning."  Perhaps  the  writ- 
er's thought  was  upon  Isa.  60:  19,  20: — "The  sun  shall  be  no 
more  thy  light  by  day,  neither  for  brightness  shall  the  moon 
give  light  unto  thee ;  but  the  Lord  shall  be  unto  thee  an  ever- 
lasting light,  and  thy  God  thy  glory.  Thy  sun  shall  no  more  go 
down,  neither  shall  thy  moon  withdraw  itself." 

Foremost  among  God's  good  and  perfect  gifts  is  his  regenerat- 
ing grace,  in  which  he  has  begotten  us  with  the  word  of  truth 
that  we  might  be  in  a  sort  the  first-fruits  of  his  created  things — 
new-born  to  him  so  as  to  be  truly  in  very  deed  the  sons  of  the 
living  God.  This  comes  from  his  oicn  good  ivill — is  the  fruit  of  his 
pure  and  perfect  love.  No  manifestation  of  God's  great  love  can 
surpass  this.  It  stands  among  the  best  of  his  great  gifts  to  de- 
praved, lost  men. It  may  be  noticed  that  the  underlying  as- 
sumption here  is  the  same  as  in  v.  2-6,  viz.,  that  God  seeks  for 
us  the  highest  and  richest  blessings  possible,  and  that  the  very 
highest  possil)le  is  a  perfect  character — a  soul  molded  into  his 
own  perfect  moral  image.  For  this  end  he  gives  us  the  discipline 
of  trial;  for  this  in  the  outset  he  gives  us  the  new  birth  through 

his  Spirit  working  in  and  l)y  his  word  of  truth. It  should  be 

carefully  noted  that  this  reference  to  regeneraMon  conceives  of  it 
as  wrought  instrumentally  l)y  God's  revealed  truth,  brought  to 
bear  with  its  legitimate  power  upon  intelligent  mind.  So  1  Pet. 
1 :  23 — "  Being  born  again  by  the  word  of  God." 

"First-fruits"  are  thought  of  as  that  which  was  specially  con- 
secrated to  God.  (See  Deut.  18:  4  and  26:  10,  Prov.  3:  *J,  Jor. 
2:  3,  etc.,  etc).  Therefore  the  phrase  well  represents  the  soul, 
new-born  in  regeneration  ;  for  no  (element,  no  characteristic  in  this 
renewed  soul,  is  so  distinctive  as  real  consecration  to  God.     How 


JAMES. — CHAP.  I.  325 

spontaneously  does  the  new-born  child  give  himself  to  his  divine 
Father  in  love  and  labor;  in  the  full  affection  of  his  soul  and  the 
warm  service  of  his  life. 

19.  Wherefore,  my  beloved  brethren,  let  every  man  be 
swift  to  hear,  slow  to  speak,  slow  to  wrath : 

20.  For  the  wrath  of  man  Avorketh  not  the  righteousness 
of  God. 

It  is  interesting  to  trace  the  course  of  thought  running  through 
this  passage  and  to  note  carefully  how  reasonable  it  is  that  we 
should  be  thoughtful  hearers  of  God's  word  of  truth  inasmuch  as 
regeneration  comes  to  men  through  that  word.  Since  God  begets 
man  in  the  new  birth  "  with  the  word  of  truth,"  let  us  indeed  be 
"swift to  hear;  "  eager,  hungry  to  drink  it  in  and  draw  out  of  it 

its  utmost  life-renewing  power. In  the  improved  text,  however, 

we  read — not  "  Wherefore;  "  but  know  ye  this;  take  special  note 
of  the  importance  of  hearing  with  the  utmost  attention  and  read- 
iness. The  word  "  know'''  calls  our  thought  to  the  point,  while 
it  by  no  means  breaks  the  closely  logical  connection  with  the 
agency  of  the  word  of  truth  in  regeneration  but  fully  assumes  it 
and  builds  upon  it. 

The  reason  why  James  turns  from  hearing  to  speaking,  exhort- 
ing them  to  be  swift  to  hear  but  slow  to  speak,  and  especially 
slow  to  get  excited  in  angry  discussion,  is  found  with  no  great 
difficulty  in  human  nature;  and  very  probably  was  manifested 
but  too  often  among  the  Jews  to  whom  he  wrote.  We  may  re- 
member that  Paul  (Rom.  2:  17-21)  touches  this  as  a  national 
trait:  "Behold,  thou  art  called  a  Jew,  .  .  and  art  confident 
that  thou  thyself  art  a  guide  of  the  blind,  a  light  of  them  which 
are  in  darkness,  an  instructor  of  the  foolish  .  .  who  hast  the 
form  of  knowledge  and  of  the  truth  in  the  law.     Thou,  therefore, 

who  teachest  another,  teachest  thou  not  thyself?"  etc. To  be 

"  swift  to  hear"  is  humble,  teachable ;  it  opens  the  heart  to  all  the 
good  influences  of  truth;  but  to  be  "swift  to  speak"  and  swift  to 
get  heated  in  discussion,  comes  most  often  of  pride — of  thinking 
more  highly  of  one's  self  than  is  well.  Such  wrath  of  man  by  no 
means  works  out  naturally  the  righteousness  which  is  of  God  and 
which  pleases  him.  Such  a  talker  (Bunyan  would  call  him  "Mr. 
Talkative")  is  very  sure  to  miss  all  the  good  influences  of  divine 
truth  on  his  own  soul,  and  especially  ff  he  naturally  goes  into 
undue  excitement,  because  his  many  words  interest  others  less 
than  himself.  He  not  only  fails  of  all  the  good  of  docile  hear- 
ing, but  makes  what  should  bless,  a  blighting  curse  to  his  char- 
acter. 

21.  Wherefore  lay  apart  all  filthiness  and  superfliuity  of 
naughtiness,  and  receive  with  meekness  the  engrafted  word, 
which  is  able  to  save  your  souls. 

"Filthiness"  should  not  carry  our  thought  to  what  defiles  flesh, 
but  rather  to  that  which  fouls  the  soul,  the  real  character.     In  a 


326  JAMES. — CHAP.  I. 

quiet  way  James  would  suggest  that  Mr.  Talkative  makes  him- 
self very  disgusting ;  that  his  indulgence  of  a  loose  tongue  and 
touchy  temper  makes  him  very  offensive  to  people  of  pure  taste — • 
much  as  filthiness  of  flesh  gives  offense  to  people  of  cleanly  habits. 
The  phrase  "superfluity  of  naughtiness"  should  by  no  means 
have  such  emphasis  on  the  word  "superfluity"  as  to  imply  that 
the  word  condemns  only  the  excess,  while  it  could  tolerate  naught- 
iness in  moderate  amount.  Not  this ;  but  rather  that  all 
"naughtiness"  is  too  much;  all  bad  temper,  all  pride,  all  self- 
seeking,  is  to  be  laid  aside  most  jealously.  Any  degree  of  naught- 
iness is  superfluous.  Even  the  least  of  it  is  too  much.  There- 
fore receive  with  meekness  (the  opposite  of  pride,  captiousness, 
and  vain  disputation)  the  word  which  the  Spirit  of  God  would 
fain  engraft  into  your  heart,  that  it  may  work  out  its  legitimate 
influence  in  the  salvation  of  your  soul.  The  word  of  truth,  being 
given  us  of  God  and  impressed  by  his  Spirit  for  the  very  purpose 
of  counter- working  sin  and  saving  our  souls  unto  holiness  and 
heaven,  how  should  we  bend  our  ear  to  hear  it  and  our  heart  to 
make  it  welcome ! 

22.  But  be  ye  doers  of  the  word,  and  not  hearers  only, 
deceiving  your  own  selves. 

23.  For  if  any  be  a  hearer  of  the  word,  and  not  a  doer, 
he  is  like  unto  a  man  beholding  his  natural  face  in  a  glass: 

24.  For  he  beholdeth  himself,  and  goeth  his  way,  and 
straightway  forgetteth  what  manner  of  man  he  was. 

25.  But  whoso  looketh  into  the  perfect  law  of  liberty,  and 
continueth  therein,  he  being  not  a  forgetful  hearer,  but  a 
doer  of  the  work,  this  man  shall  be  blessed  in  his  deed. 

Another  danger  to  be  apprehended  and  guarded  against  calls  for 
yet  another  word  of  warning.  There  was  the  danger  of  hearing 
and  not  doing,  of  learning  their  duty  but  doing  it  not;  perhaps 
even  accounting  it  a  merit  to  hear,  yet  no  sin  to  neglect  the  doing. 
Therefore,  let  them  receive  the  admonition — that  they  be  not  only 
swift  to  hear  rather  than  swift  to  speak,  but  also  prompt  to  do  as 
well  as  to  hear.  To  be  a  hearer  and  yet  not  a  doer  would  be  a 
sad — nay,  more,  a  fatal  shortcoming.  For  all  divinely  revealed 
truth  is  unto  goodness.  It  comes  from  God  for  the  very  purpose 
of  making  man's  heart  and  life  better;  not  to  amuse  his  fancy; 
not  merely  to  stir  his  thought-power;  not  alone  to  gratify  his  taste 
for  knowledge;  but  high  above  all  those  or  any  other  purposes,  it 
comes  from  God  and  it  aims  to  secure  a  better  character.  It  asks 
an  obedient  heart.  It  reveals  something  to  be  done.  It  looks  to- 
ward duty.  'JMiercfore  the  man  who  ends  with  hearing  and  always 
stops  short  of  doing  deceives  himself  if  he  supposes  that  he  does 
justice  in  the  least  degree  to  God's  revealed  truth  or  to  the  wants 
of  his  moral  nature.  Let  him  not  tirink  that  by  merely  hearing 
the  truth  he  honors  and  pleases  God.  On  the  contrary,  if  he 
hears  only  and  obeys  not,  ho  wrongs  his  own  soul,  abuses  his 


JAMES. — CHAP.  I.  327 

conscience,  withers  and  dwarfs  his  spiritual  growth.  To  illus- 
trate his  case  James  compares  it  to  a  man's  seeing  the  face  he  was 
born  with  in  a  mirror;  he  just  catches  a  look,  passes  on,  and 
forthwith  forgets  what  he  saw.  He  receives  no  abiding  impres- 
sion and  gains  not  the  least  practical  result  from  his  seeing.  The 
better  and  true  way  is  then  described.  He  "looks  into  the  per- 
fect law  of  liberty," — bending  over  it,  the  word  signifies — fixing 
his  eye  intently,  earnestly,  upon  the  truth  seen  there  that  he  may 
take  in  its  full  sense  and  power.  "The  law  of  liberty"  (be  it  no- 
ticed carefully)  is  not  a  laAV  of  license;  is  not  a  law  which  you 
are  at  liberty  to  heed  or  not  heed  as  you  will ;  is  not  a  law  which 
merely  suggests  advice,  never  rising  to  authority,  never  enforced 
by  sanctions ;  but  far  otherwise.  It  is  a  law  which  aims  to  break 
the  chains  of  sin  and  set  you  free  from  its  bondage;  a  law  whose 
mission  is  deliverance  from  Satan  and  his  enslavement,  redemp- 
tion from  the  tyranny  of  lust.  It  looks  toward  the  freedom  with 
which  God  makes  his  children  free — the  freedom  of  a  sanctified 
will,  brought  into  harmony  Avith  the  will  of  God  which  is  infinite 
reason.  In  true  obedience  to  this  will,  there  is  never  the  least 
sense  of  bondage.  All  obedience  of  this  sort  is  sweet  and  joyous, 
for  it  satisfies  our  noblest,  highest  convictions  of  right  and  duty, 
and  causes  the  soul  to  rest  in  perfect  peace.  He  therefore  who 
looks  intently,  deeply  into  this  perfect  law,  given  us  to  free  the 
soul  from  sin,  and  who  continues  in  this  law,  being  not  a  forget- 
ful hearer  but  a  doer  of  the  work  which  God's  revealed  truth 
enjoins,  is  blessed  in  this  doing;  not  (be  it  noticed)  in  his  hear- 
ing merely,  but  in  his  real  doing — in  the  obedience  he  renders  to 
the  perceived  claims  of  divine  truth.  So  Jesus  himself  taught: 
"  He  that  hath  my  commandments  and  keepeth  them,  he  it  is  that 
loveth  me;  and  he  that  loveth  me  shall  be  loved  of  my  Father,  and 
I  will  love  him ;"  "  My  Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  unto 
him  and  make  our  abode  with  him."  (John  14:  21,  23.)  Is  not 
this  result  always  supremely  blessed  ? 

I  am  aware  that  a  very  different  sense  has  been  put  by  some 
upon  the  phrase — "The  perfect  law  of  liberty ;  "viz.,  that  its 
liberty  is  the  absence  of  rule,  precept,  definite  requirement,  leav- 
ing the  subject  free  to  guide  himself  by  the  impulses  of  love  only 
— "  do  what  you  love  to  doj'  being  the  general  direction.  With 
this  omission  of  specific  rule  another  feature  is  sometimes  com- 
bined— viz.,  that  love  can  not  work  under  rule  ;  therefore  must  of 
necessity  be  free  to  make  its  own  law,  inasmuch  as  obedience  to 
specific  law  is  of  course  rendered  only  in  and  through  fear,  and 
never  from  real  love. 

These  glosses  upon  the  "perfect  law  of  liberty  "  are  sometimes 
put  in  a  very  specious,  attractive  way  ;  yet  I  can  not  excuse  my- 
self from  saying — They  tread  on  dangerous  ground  and  are  es- 
sentially fallacious.  For,  definite  rules  of  moral  conduct,  such  as 
God  gives  in  his  moral  law,  are  in  their  essence  an  unmixed  bless- 
ing. I  thank  him  for  every  such  rule.  It  relieves  me  to  know 
precisely  what  moral  conduct  towards  both  God  and  man  will 


328  JAMES. — CHAP.   I. 

please  God.  I  love  to  see  the  heart  of  God  in  every  one  of  these 
rules.  I  find  a  deep  and  restful  joy  in  cultivating  a  careful  con- 
scientiousness in  obeying  every  rule  in  its  true  spirit,  as  a  testimony 
to  the  love  I  bear  to  the  Great  and  Good  Lawgiver  and    to  my 

earnest  purpose  to  please  him  in  all  things. ^Then  as  to   the 

other  idea — that  obedience  to  clearly  defined  moral  precepts  is  the 
slavery  of  fear  and  not  the  freedom  of  love,  the  very  position  it- 
self is  false  and  fallacious.  For,  love  has  its  best  scope  and  most 
glorious  range  when  it  accepts  God's  law  as  the  expression  of  his 
will,  and  renders  obedience  to  it  out  of  the  depths  of  a  loving 
soul.  God  is  a  great  Lawgiver  and  King,  No  richer  joy  ever 
wells  up  in  the  souls  of  his  children  than  that  which  recognizes 
and  adores  him  as  such,  and  yields  him  the  homage  of  the  ut- 
most obedience  to  all  his  revealed  will. 

26.  If  any  man  among  you  seem  to  be  religious,  and 
bridleth  not  his  tongue,  but  deceivetli  his  own  heart,  this 
man's  religion  is  vain. 

27.  Pure  religion  and  undefiled  before  God  and  the  Father 
is  this,  To  visit  the  fatherless  and  widows  in  their  affliction, 
and  to  keep  himself  unspotted  from  the  world. 

The  words  "  religious"  and  "religion"  as  used  here  put  in  the 
foreground  the  idea  of  worship,  and  we  may  say,  the  worship  of 
ritualism.  The  man  thought  of  is  religious  in  the  sense  of  mak- 
ing great  account  of  the  forms  of  religious  worship.  So  doing, 
he  may  seem  to  be  a  true  worshiper  of  God.  But  if  he  bridles 
not  his  tongue  but  deceives  his  own  heart  with  the  presump- 
tion that  he  is  very  religious,  and  specially  acceptable  to  God,  all 
his  religion  is  vanity — hollow,  futile,  worthless.  It  is  an  abom- 
ination to  God,  and  only  a  sham,  an  emptiness  in  the  eyes  of  dis- 
cerning men. 

^  Let  the  better,  the  true  idea  of  what  pure  religion  is,  be  con- 
sidered. Here  he  gives  it.  "  To  visit  the  fotherless  and  widows 
in  their  affliction  "  is  not  to  go  to  see  them  merely  to  intrude 
upon  their  secret  sorrows,  and  pry  into  their  untold  griefs;  and  by 
no  means  is  its  aim  to  get  for  yourself  the  honor  before  men  of 
being  sympathetic  or  generous;  no;  but  to  minister  unostenta- 
tiously to  human  suffering  and  want.  To  this  James  subjoins  : — 
To  "keep  himself  unspotted  from  the  world" — above  its  pollu- 
tions ;  unstained  by  its  spirit  of  vain  show,  "  the  lust  of  the  eye 
and  the  pride  of  life." 

There  is  special  pertinence  in  saying — The  religion  that  is 
"  undefiled  Ijcfore  God  even  the  Father  is  this."  He  docs  not 
say — before  God,  the  Almighty  ;  nor  God,  the  All-wise  ;  nor  God, 
the  Omniscient;  but  God  the  real  Father.  For  He  will  delight  in 
those  who  have  such  sympathy  as  he  himself  has  with  his  own 
suffering  children.  Tlie  great  and  good  Father  will  love  to  see 
you  visiting  the  fatherless  (tnes  in  tliis  world  of  sorrow. 

It  may  be  noticed  also  that  this  test  of  pure  as   distinguished 


JAMES. — CHAP.   II.  329 

from  spurious  religion  is  the  very  same  which  Jesus  proposes  to 
apply  at  the  final  judgment :  "1  was  hungry,  and  ye  gave  me 
meat;  a  stranger,  and  ye  took  me  in ;  naked,  and  ye  clotlied  me; 
sick,  and  ye  visited  me.  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  these  things 
unto  one  of  the  least  of  these,  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto 
me  "  (Matt.  25  :  35-40). 

It  is  doubtless  sadly  true  that  alms-giving  may  be  made  a 
formality  or  an  hypocrisy ;  and  so  may  become  as  offensive  to 
God  as  any  other  forms  and  hypocrisies.  But  such  abuses  can 
not  vitiate  the  rule.  Like  all  other  tests  of  character,  this  is  to  be 
applied  to  the  heart ;  by  man,  as  to  his  fellows  or  himself,  as 
faithfully  and  honestly  as  he  can:  by  God,  to  all  his  creatures 
with  infinite  honesty  and  never-failing  certainty. 


3>*:c 


CHAPTER   II. 

Respect  of  persons  forbidden  (v.  1)  ;  illustrated  as  seen  in  wor- 
shiping assemblies  (v.  2-4) ;  shown  to  be  utterly  unlike  God's  pref- 
erence as  between  the  rich  and  the  poor  (v.  5) ;  and  also  unrea- 
sonable, judged  of  by  the  character  of  the  rich  (v.  6,  7),  or  by  the 
royal  law  of  God  (v.  8,  9).  Sin  lies  in  violating  the  spirit  rather 
than  the  letter  of  the  law  (v.  10,  11).  "The  law  of  liberty"  and 
what  it  signifies  and  implies  (v.  12,  13).  The  mutual  relations  of 
faith  and  works  discussed;  illustrated  in  the  case  of  mere  profes- 
sions of  benevolence  (v.  14-17) ;  by  a  supposed  case  of  faith  with 
no  works  resulting  (v.  18,  19)  ;  by  the  case  of  Abraham  and  Isaac 
(v.  20-24) ;  and  of  Rahab  (v.  25)  ;  and  finally  compared  to  a  body 
from  which  the  soul  has  gone  (v.  26). 

1.  My  brethren,  have  not  the  faith  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  tlie  Lord  of  glory,  with  respect  of  persons. 

"Respect  of  persons"  means  estimating  and  treating  men  ac- 
cording to  their  external  circumstances,  their  outward  appendages 
— and  not  their  intrinsic  character.  It  is  regard  for  the  outward, 
the  person — and  not  the  inward — the  real  soul  and  its  qualities. 
The  apostle  would  never  admit  this  principle  or  rule  of  treat- 
ment into  Christianity.  Let  it  have  no  place  in  the  usages,  or 
even  the  opinions  and  social  estimates  which  obtain   among  the 

followers  of  Christ. It   was  very   pertinent  and  forcible  for 

him  to  speak  of  "  the  faith  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  theLord  of 
glory.''  Let  them  remember  that  their  Jesus  had  infinite  glory 
with  the  Father  before  he  came  to  our  world ;  and  that,  though 
rich    above    all   human  thought,   yet   for  our  sakes  he  became 


330  JAMES. — CHAP.    II. 

utterly  poor,  having  "  not  where  to  lay  his  head,"  Would  they 
apply  the  principle  of  respect  of  persons  to  him  and  disown  him 
for  his  abject  poverty  ?  Would  not  this  be  unutterably  horrible? 
The  poverty  side  of  his  human  life  w'ould  be  inevitably  suggested 
by  this  allusion  to  his  anterior  glory  with  the  Father.  It  needed 
but  this  one  word — "the  Lord  of  glory" — to  remind  them  of  that 
sublime  self-sacrifice  which  brought  him  down  to  the  lowest  of 
the  poor  in  the  sphere  of  his  earthly  estate. 

2.  For  if  there  come  unto  your  assembly  a  man  with  a 
gold  ring,  in  goodly  apparel,  and  there  come  in  also  a  poor 
man  in  vile  raiment ; 

3.  And  ye  have  respect  to  him  that  weareth  the  gay  cloth- 
ing, and  say  unto  him,  Sit  thou  here  in  a  good  place;  and 
say  to  the  poor,  Stand  thou  there,  or  sit  here  under  my  foot- 
stool : 

4.  Are  ye  not  then  partial  in  yourselves,  and  are  become 
judges  of  evil  thoughts? 

"Unto  your  assembly"  (Greek,  synagogue),  your  place  of  re- 
ligious worship. A  gold-ringed  man.     Even  the  choice  of  the 

word  for  man  (avjyp)  suggests  one  who  would  be  held  above  the 
common  rank. — "In  shining  apparel" — making  a  fine  display. — 
Also  a  poor  man  in  sordid  raiment,  cheap,  unadorned;  but  not 

necessarily  filthy. You  pay  your  special  respect  to  the  man 

of  gay  clothing. "Sit  here  honorably"  (Greek):  while  to  the 

poor  man  ye  say — Stand  there,  anywhere;  no  matter  whether 
you  find  any  seat;  or  take  one  here  under  my  footstool.  In 
this,  do  ye  not  make  discriminations  among  yourselves,  and  on 
grounds  that  are  unreal  and  vicious  ?  Do  ye  not  become  evil- 
thinking  judges — judges  who  pass  their  verdict  upon  utterly  false 
principles?  The  Greek  words  mean,  not  that  they  passed  a  judg- 
ment concerning  evil  thoughts,  either  their  own  or  others;  but 
that  they  judged  of  men  upon  false  grounds,  making  their  estimate 
and  forming  their  opinions  upon  considerations  utterly  unworthy 
of  Christian  men. 

5.  Hearken,  my  beloved  brethren.  Hath  not  God  chosen 
the  poor  of  this  world  rich  in  faith,  and  heirs  of  the  king- 
dom which  he  hath  promised  to  them  that  love  him  ? 

6.  But  ye  have  despi.sed  the  poor.  Do  not  rich  men  op- 
press you,  and  draw  you  before  the  judgment-seats? 

7.  I)o  not  they  blaspheme  that  worthy  name  by  the  which 
ye  are  called? 

Does  God  act  on  such  principles  as  these  of  yours?  Docs  He 
discriminate  against  the  poor  and  choose  rich  men  as  his  favor- 
ites, to  be  the  recipients  of  his  chief  blessings  ?  Nay,  breth- 
ren ;  ye  know  it  to  Ijc  far  otherwise.  Usually  he  chooses  the  poor 
of  this  world  to  become  rich  in  faith  and  heirs  of  his  kingdom— to 


JAMES. CHAP.    II.  331 

become  rich  eternally  in  the  wealth  of  heaven.  In  despising  the 
poor  as  ye  are  doing,  ye  take  the  very  opposite  course,  and  act 
on  principles  the  reverse  of  God's.  Is  it  in  your  thought  to  re- 
buke even  the  great  God  by  discarding  his  policy,  and  thrusting 
your  own  into  his  face — in  his  own  house — in  contrast  with  his  ? 
Consider,  also,  how  the  rich  have  treated  you,  as  Christians ; 
how  they  have  oppressed  you  and  dragged  you  before  their  courts 
in  persecution.  Think  also  how  they  have  dishonored  the  glo- 
rious name  called  upon  you  in  your  baptism  and  given  you  as 
your  distinctive  name  before  men.  Is  it  not  passing  strange  that 
ye  should  exhaust  the  partialities  of  your  esteem  and  favor  upon 
rich  men,  fascinated  by  their  vain  display  of  wealth  and  fawning 
at  their  feet  to  gain  some  consideration  from  their  ungodly  hands  ? 

8.  If  ye  fulfill  the  royal  law  according  to  the  Scripture, 
Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,  ye  do  well : 

9.  But  if  ye  have  respect  to  persons,  ye  commit  sin,  and 
are  convinced  of  the  law  as  transgressors. 

In  V.  8  the  first  Greek  word  (mentoi)  suggests  a  concise  restate- 
ment of  the  principles  involved;  as  if  he  would  say; — or  put  it 
thus:  Apply  to  it  the  royal  law — that  kingly,  grand,  all-compre- 
hensive and  perfect  rule — "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self." Obey  this,  and  you  are  all  right.  But  this  law  makes  the 
poor  man  your  neighbor  as  truly  as  the  rich,  and  binds  you  to 
love  him  as  you  love  yourself  This,  you  Avill  observe,  would  not 
put  him  under  your  footstool  when  he  comes  into  your  Christian 
assembly  !  Having  "  respect  of  persons  "  is  a  palpable  and  griev- 
ous violation  of  this  royal  law.  The  fact  that  you  treat  men  so, 
viewed  in  the  light  of  this  law,  convicts  you  of  being  transgress- 
ors. 

10.  For  whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole  law,  and  yet  of- 
fend in  one  point,  he  is  guilty  of  all. 

11.  For  he  that  said,  Do  not  commit  adultery,  said  also, 
Do  not  kill.  Now  if  thou  commit  no  adultery,  yet  if  thou 
kill,  thou  art  become  a  transgressor  of  the  law. 

Suppose  you  obey  the  law  in  every  other  respect  save  this,  yet 
even  then,  breaking  it  in  this  one  point,  you  really  break  the  law. 
You  are  held  obnoxious  to  its  penalty  as  a  transgressor.  This  is 
precisely  the  sense  of  the  Greek  word  rendered  guilty  (svoxos) ; 
Ye  are  held  under  the  entire  and  full  condemnation  of  this  law 
as  really  and  truly  as  if  ye  had  broken  all  its  precepts.  For  in 
a  most  vital  sense,  the  law  of  God  is  a  unit;  and  breaking  any 
one  precept  is  breaking  the  law.  Breaking  any  one  precept  in- 
volves the  spirit  of  disobedience — the  heart  of  rebellion  against 
God,  and  therefore  all  the  real  sin  there  is  or  can  be  in  violating 
God's  law. 

The  writer  makes  his  meaning  plain,  and  if  need  be  yet  more 
certain  by  his  supposed  case  (v.  11): — For  he,  the  same  God,  who 


332  JAMES. — CHAP.    II. 

said — Do  not  commit  adultery,  said  also,  "  Do  not  kill."  Now 
suppose  ye  have  not  committed  adultery,  yet  if  ye  have  killed 
your  neighbor,  it  is  murder  none  the  less  because  ye  are  guiltless 
of  adultery.  It  is  not  necessary  that  ye  break  every  precept  of 
the  decalogue  in  order  to  make  your  deed  of  murder  a  sin.  The 
violation  of  a  single  precept — any  one  ye  may  choose  or  chance 
to  violate — makes  you  a  transgressor  of  the  v^^hole  law.  Ye  will 
therefore  apply  this  principle  to  your  sin  in  having  respect  of 
persons. 

12.  So  speak  ye,  and  so  do,  as  they  that  shall  be  judged 
by  the  law  of  liberty. 

13.  For  he  shall  have  judgment  without  mercy,  that 
hath  shewed  no  mercy;  and  mercy  rejoiceth  against  judg- 
ment. 

Remember  that  ye  are  to  be  judged  by  "  the  law  of  liberty." 
The  reader  will  recall  the  previous  reference  to  "  the  perfect  law 
of  liberty"  (1:  25),  and  may  refer  to  explanatory  remarks  made 
there.  Both  there  and  here  it  is  most  palpable  on  the  face  of  it 
that  this  "law  of  liberty"  can  not  be  a  law  of  license — a  law 
which  has  no  binding  precept,  no  "grip."  On  the  contrary,  it  is 
a  law  which  cuts  up  sin  by  its  roots,  which  strikes  at  the  core — 
the  very  spirit  itself  of  transgression,  and  seeks  to  exterminate  it 
utterly  from  the  heart  so  that  not  even  a  fiber  shall  remain.  It 
aims  at  nothing  short  of  setting  man's  heart /ree  from  all  sin  so 

that  he  shall  be  at  liberty  from  its  soul-bondage. For  he  who 

shows  no  mercy  to  others  shall  have  merciless  judgment  passed 
on  himself.     It  is  only  the  merciful  man  who  can  rejoice  against 

judgment — safe  from  its  terrible  condemnation. In  this  clause 

there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  abstract,  "  mercy,"  stands  for  the 
concrete — the  mail  ofmercxj  ;  he  whose  spirit  and  heart  represent 
mercy.  He  only  is  safe  and  may  be  joyful  against  God's  judg- 
ments.  That  the  man  who  shows  no  mercy  "to  his  fellow  shall 

himself  find  no  mercy  with  God,  is  the  doctrine  so  often  reiter- 
ated by  our  Lord:  "Forgive  ye  men  their  trespasses  that  your 
Father  may  forgive  you  yours.  For  if  ye  do  not  forgive  others, 
neither  will  your  Father  forgive  you"  (Mark  11  :  25,  26  and  Matt. 
G :  14,  15  and  elsewhere). 

14.  What  doth  it  profit,  my  brethren,  though  a  man  say 
he  hath  faith,  and  have  not  works?  can  faith  save  him? 

15.  If  a  brother  or  sister  be  naked,  and  destitute  of  daily 
food, 

16.  And  one  of  you  say  unto  them,  Depart  in  peace,  be 
ye  warmed  and  filled ;  notwithstanding  ye  give  them  not 
those  things  which  are  needful  to  the  body;  what  dotli  it 
profit? 

17.  Even  so  fiiith,  if  it  hath  not  works,  is  dead,  being 
alone. 


JAMES. — CHAP.    II.  333 

Here  opens  a  special  discussion  upon  faith  and  loorks,  as  to 
their  mutual  relations  and  values,  separate  or  combined.  The 
passage  has  been  sometimes  sharply  criticised,  and  has  been  to 
some  a  stone  of  stumbling  because  thought  to  be  in  collision  with 
Paul's  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  alone.  Even  the  good 
Martin  Luther  read  James  with  a  vail  over  his  eyes,  and  indulged 
himself  in  denouncing  this  passage  and  indeed  in  discarding  the 
whole  epistle  because  he  did  not  like  this  passage  with  his  con- 
struction of  it.  But  the  passage  reads  admirably  when  the  vail  is 
removed. 

In  the  outset,  note  the  connection  of  this  discussion  of  faith  and 
works  with  the  context  His  brethren  held  their  faith  as  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  along  with  respect  of  persons,  (see  v.  1).  They 
professed  faith  in  Christ;  yet  their  works  in  despising  the  poor 
for  their  poverty  and  flattering  the  rich  despite  their  wickedness, 
really  gave  the  lie  to  their  faith.  To  say  the  least,  this  sin  of 
theirs  was  not  at  all  to  the  credit  and  the  honor  of  their  faith  in 
"the  Lord  of  glory."  James  therefore  proposes  to  them  to  look 
into  this  matter.  They  need  to  see  that  faith  calls  for  better  works 
than  such ;  indeed,  that  faith  and  such  works  do  not  fit  well  to- 
gether; that  faith  without  better  works  than  those  is  only  as  good 
as  dead.     Hence  this  discussion. 

He  begins  with  the  question  whether  faith  with  no  correspond- 
ing works  brings  any  profit.  Is  it  good  for  any  thing?  Can  it 
really  save  ?  Put  it  to  the  test  in  the  point  of  relief  for  the  hun- 
gry and  the  naked.  Suppose  you  have  naked  and  hungry  ones  in 
the  brotherhood  of  your  church,  and  you  say  to  them — 1  love  you 
very  much;  I  wish  you  well  with  all  my  heart;  "be  ye  warmed 
and  be  ye  filled";  warm  clothes  and  good  food  are  fine  things  to 
have  ;  how  I  wish  you  had  them ! — but  you  give  them  nothing  : 
what  does  your  faith  and  your  Christianity — all  your  warm  words 
amount  to?  How  much  does  it  all  profit  those  needy,  suffering 
men  and  women,  or  even  yourself?  Are  they  at  all  the  less  cold 
and  the  less  hungry?  Do  your  empty  words  warm  those  freezing 
limbs,  or  fill  those  hungry  mouths? So  faith,  having  no  corre- 
sponding works,  i.  e.,  if  alone  and  fruitless,  is  simply  dead. 

This  illustrative  case,  the  reader  will  notice,  shows  that  James 
has  no  confidence  in  such  faith  as  that.  The  faith  he  thinks  of  is 
empty  and  dead.  The  fact  that  it  bears  no  legitimate  fruit  proves 
it  to  be  spurious.  He  looks  for  fruit ;  then  he  may  believe  it  to 
be  living  and  not  dead. 

18^  Yea,  a  man  may  say,  Thou  hast  fiiith,  and  I  have 
wor^:  shew  me  thy  faith  without  thy  -works,  and  I  will 
shew  thee  my  faith  by  my  works. 

19.  Thou  believest  that  there  is  one  God ;  thou  doest  Avell : 
the  devils  also  believe,  and  tremble. 

The  Greek  words  translated — "  Yea,  a  man  may  say" — may  bo 
rendered  somewhat  more  closely — "  Bui  some  may  (or  will)  say." 
The  question  of  interpretation  is  whether  James  nuts  these  worda 
15 


334  JAMES. — CHAP.    II. 

in  the  mouth  of  a  supposed  objector,  or  gives  them  as  his  own — 
expressing  his  own  views  of  the  ease.  The  hatter  is  the  better 
view;  for  phiinly  this  supposition  presents  his  own  ideas.  Tlie 
case  (he  holds)  is  such  that  one  man  might  properly  say  to  an- 
other;— "Thou  hast  faith";  thou  makcst  the  utmost  possible 
account  of  naked  faith  ;  1  have  works,  and  I  think  them  entirely 
vital.  Now  show  me  thy  faith  without  works  (the  better  text 
omits  the  word  "  thi/'') — and  I  will  show  thee  my  faith  by  means 

of  works. This  putting  of  the  case  shows  that  James  never 

thinks  of  works  with  no  faith  behind  them ;  but  rather  of  works 
as  begotten  of  real  faith  in  Christ  and  in  his  truth.  These  works 
he  would  rely  on  to  set  forth  and  verify  his  faith.  Being  the 
natural  fruit  of  true  faith,  they  are  the  best  possible  evidence  of 

its  genuineness — of  its  actual  presence  and  vital  power, Still 

he  pushes  his  argument: — "Thou  believest  there  is  one  God"; 
thou  doest  well ;  so  far  all  is  right : — but  mark  :  the  devils  believe 
all  that;  and  they  also  show  that  their  faith  is  real — thei/  "  trem- 
ble'' before  him.  But  observe:  their  faith  never  works  by  love; 
never  purifies  the  heart;  never  passes  into  sweet  submission,  res- 
ignation, confidence.  Hence  you  will  see  that  faith  may  end  with 
mere  belief  of  the  intelligence  and  may  utterly  fiiil  to  bring  the 
free  will  and  the  voluntary  afiections  into  harmony  with  its  legiti- 
mate demands.  This  is  a  valid — indeed,  a  most  momentous  dis- 
tinction, never  to  be  forgotten — never  to  be  left  out  of  account. 

20.  But  wilt  tliou  know,  O  vain  man,  that  faith  without 
works  is  dead  ? 

21.  AVas  not  Abraham  our  ftither  justified  by  works,  when 
lie  had  offered  Isaac  his  son  upon  the  altar? 

22.  Seest  thou  hoAV  faith  wrought  with  his  works,  and  by 
works  was  faith  made  perfect? 

23.  And  the  Scripture  was  fulfilled  whicli  saith,  Abraham 
believed  God,  and  it  was  imputed  unto  him  for  righteous- 
ness ;  and  he  was  called  the  friend  of  God. 

24.  Ye  see  then  how  that  by  works  a  man  is  justified,  and 
not  by  faith  only. 

"Wilt  thou  know" — wouldest  thou  have  a  case  in  point  that 
will  settle  this  whole  question  and  prove  that  faith  without  works 

is  inoperative,  worthless?     We  have  the  case  in  Abraham. 

"  O  vain  man  " — mistaken  man  ;  literally,  empty  man,  empty  in 
the  sense  of  not  having  the  truth. "  Is  dead  " — but  the  im- 
proved text  gives  not  "nekra"  (dead),  but  arge,  equivalent  to 
aerge — inactive,  a  thing  tluit  has  no  working,  energizing  force  in 

it. Was  not  Abraham,  our  father,  justified    by  works,   in    as 

much  as  he  ofifijred,  or  in  having  offered — his  son  upon  tlie  altar? 
Thou  seest  (this  not  interrogative  but  affirmative) — thou  seest 
that  his  faitli  wrought  in  and  with  liis  works  ;  it  put  energy  into 
his  works;  it  led  him  to  do  that  marvelous  deed;  and  by  that 
deed,  his  faith  was  made  perfect — it  reached  its  full  development. 


JAMES. — CHAP.    II.  335 

Thus  that  Scripture  was  fulfilled  which  saith — "Abraham  believed 
God,  and  it  was  accounted  to  him  for  righteousness  "  (Gen.  15  :  6). 
Did  James  fail  to  notice  that  the  Scripture  he  quotes  says 
nothing  about  works,  but  speaks  only  of  his  faith,  and  seems  to 
make  every  thing  turn  upon  his  "believing  God?"  No;  we  can 
not  suppose  for  a  moment  that  this  fact  escaped  his  eye.  But 
the  works  (he  would  say)  were  really  there  nonetheless;  the 
works  were  the  very  thing  which  the  history  of  the  scene  in 
Genesis  makes  most  prominent — his  going  steadily  forward  to 
offer  up  that  only  son  upon  the  altar,  never  wincing,  never  falter- 
ing, never  complaining  or  questioning — until  the  deed  was  vir- 
tually done !  There  it  was,  a  glorious  case  of  blended  faith  and 
works — faith  energizing  work — putting  all  its  vital  force  into  the 
real  doing  of  that  stern  and  fearfully  testing  deed  I  James  was 
under  no  mistake  in  finding  works  there — works,  however,  not 
superseding  faith,  not  absorbing  all  the  merit  of  the  act  and  put- 
ting the  case  upon  the  footing  of  good  desert  as  if  he  had  wrought 
something  meritorious ;  but  works,  the  fruit  of  genuine  faith, 
and  acceptable  to  God  simply  because  they  testify  with  evidence 
so  overwhelming  that  he  did  truly, .  fully,  perfectly,  believe  in 
God.  In  this  sense  he  was  justified  by  works  and  not  by 
faith  only — i.  c,  not  by  faith  which  produced  no  corresponding 
works. 

25.  Likewise  also  was  not  Rahab  the  harlot  justified  by 
works,  when  she  had  received  the  messengers,  and  had  sent 
them  out  another  way  ? 

26.  For  as  the  body  without  the  spirit  is  dead,  so  faith 
without  works  is  dead  also. 

The  case  of  Rahab  is  analogous.  The  writer  to  the  Hebrews 
names  her  as  one  of  the  heroines  of  faith  (11:  31);  but  James 
seizes  upon  her  history  to  show  that  her  faith  also  revealed  itself 
in  works  and  proved  itself  genuine  by  the  circumstance  that  she 
exposed  her  life  to  befriend  the  men  whom  she  believed  to  have 
been  sent  of  God  to  her  door.  Thus  (James  would  say)  we 
reach  the  conclusion  that  faith  without  works,  like  a  body  with- 
out its  soul,  is  simply  dead.  We  know  it  to  be  dead  because  it  is 
powerless.  It  does  nothing,  moves  nothing.  In  its  real  nature, 
nothing  is  so  energetic,  so  full  of  vital  force,  as  faith  in  the  great 
truths  of  God,  faith  in  the  divine-human  person  of  Jesus  as  our 
own  perfect  Redeemer.  Therefore  if  a  man's  professed  faith  has 
no  vital  force  in  it;  if  it  puts  no  force  into  him,  moves  him  never 
to  do  any  thing  in  obedience  and  love  to  Jesus  Christ,  then  we 
know  his  professed  faith  is  not  what  the  living  soul  is  to  the 
human  body.     It  is  nothing  but  a  body  having  no  soul  within. 

It  would  be  unpardonable  to  leave  this  passage  without  more 
special  attention  to  the  oft-alleged  discrepancy  between  Paul  and 

James  on  this  question  of  faith  and  works. We  begin  with 

placing  their  respective  staple  texts  side  by  side. 


336  JAMES. — CHAP.   II. 

Paul : — "  We  conclude  that  a  man  is  justified  without  the  deeds 
of  the  law"  (Rom.  3:  28). 

James: — "Ye  see,  then,  how  that  by  works  a  man  is  justified, 
and  not  by  faith  only"  (2:  24). 

Now  these  passages  at  their  face,  would  surely  seem  to  show  that 
James  has  another  gospel  from  that  of  Paul,  a  gospel  in  which  sal- 
vation rests  on  quite  difierent  grounds.  Among  conditions  of  sal- 
vation, James  rules  works  in;  Paul  rules  them  out.  On  tlie 
point  of  faith  without  works,  James  denies ;  Paul  affirms.  This 
would  seem  to  be  a  square,  flat  contradiction.  But  it  is  no  real 
contradiction  whatever.  They  use  their  terms  in  difierent 
senses ;  that  is  all.  Paul  aims  to  refute  one  error ;  James  an- 
other. Paul  gives  battle  against  Pharisaism;  James  against 
Antinomianism.  Paul  decries  works,  considered  as  a  meritorious 
ground  of  salvation ;  James  seems  never  to  think  of  works  in 
that  light,  but  only  as  the  legitimate  fruit  and  therefore  evidence 
of  true  faith.  With  Paul,  faith  in  Christ  is  so  comprehensive 
that  it  takes  in  the  loving,  obedient  heart  and  life — as  real  faith 
always  should  and  always  must;  while  with  James,  faith  con- 
sidered as  not  bringing  forth  works  is  nothing  better,  nothing 
more  than  a  professed  intellectual  belief,  and  leaves  out  the 
homage  which  the  heart  gives  to  believed  truth — the  obedience 
of  heart  and  life  to  the  legitimate  demands  of  truth  believed. 
Thus  Paul  and  James  difier  radically  in  their  respective  con- 
ceptions of  faith. 

Not  less  but  perhaps  even  more  do  they  diSbr  in  their  usage  of 
the  term,  "works.''  The  "works"  which  Paul  thinks  of  and  so 
sharply  rules  out  of  the  pale  of  conditions  of  salvation  are  mere 
Pharisaic  works  of  righteousness;  ritualities  and  ceremonies 
which  were  never  the  fruit  of  true  faith  in  Christ — which,  in- 
deed, were  directly  antagonistic  to  such  faith,  being  put  by  the 
Pharisees  in  the  place  and  stead  of  gospel  faith  as  the  meritorious 
ground  of  salvation.  No  wonder  Paul  comes  down  upon  such 
works  with  all  the  combined  power  of  Scripture,  of  logic,  and  of 
intense  denunciation. 

Over  against  this,  James  has  not  the  remotest  thought  of  those 
Pharisaic  works.  The  works  which  he  esteems  so  highly  and 
holds  to  be  so  vital  to  salvation  are  the  fruit  of  gospel  faith — are 
that  intrinsic  righteousness  which  both  law  and  gospel  demand — 
the  resulting  product  of  real  faith  inspiring  love  to  God  ;  cordial, 
earnest  obedience;  all  the  sweet  moralities  of  the  Christian 
life. 

It  may  seem  strange  to  us  that  two  apostles  who  had  certainly 
met,  and  we  must  presume  had  communed  together  more  or  less 
on  the  great  themes  of  the  gospel;  who,  moreover,  were  taught 
])V  one  and  the  same  Divine  Spirit,  should  use  terms  in  senses  so 
diverse,  and  make  statements  which  on  their  face  would  seem 
quite  irreconcilal)le.  r>ut  we  should  bear  in  mind  that  the  Divine 
Spirit  is  not  responsible  for  their  usage  of  words;  that  their 
usage  was  formed  and  shaped  under  diverse  circumstances ;  that 


JAMES. — CHAP.  III.  337 

their  opportunities  for  free  comparison  of  views  and  for  their 
sense  of  standard  terms  were  limited;  that  one  had  passed  his 
early  life  among  Pharisees  and  the  other  had  not ;  that  one  had 
found  his  great  mission  in  contending  against  the  errors  of  Phar- 
isaism, while  the  other  had  equally  found  his  in  contending 
against  Antinomianism ;  that  they  had  each  a  mission  of  most 
vital  importance  and  each  was  standing  up  intelligently  and 
firmly  in  defense  of  those  aspects  of  truth  which  he  found  as- 
sailed and  against  those  errors  which  were  right  under  his  eye 
and  hand.     This  is  just  what  good  men  ought  to  do. 

Such  apparent  yet  not  real  discrepancies  between  two  great 
apostles  should  admonish  us  to  read  the  Scriptures  with  our  eyes 
open  to  the  circumstances  and  aims  of  each  individual  writer  in 
each  distinct  epistle,  and  even  in  each  chapter  and  passage. 
Every  one  of  these  inspired  writers  assumed,  and  had  a  right  to 
assume,  that  his  readers  would  give  attention  enough  to  consider 
what,  under  the  circumstances,  his  words  should  mean ;  to  think 
what  he  was  writing  about;  to  whom  he  was  writing;  what  errors 
he  was  opposing;  what  truths  he  was  teaching  and  for  what 
purpose.  Writers  always  assume  that  their  readers  must  bear  the 
responsibility  of  at  least  so  much  thought,  as  the  price  of  under- 
standing what  is  written. 


CHAPTER    TIL 

A  new  and  special  line  of  thought  runs  through  this  chapter — 
llie  use  and  abuse  of  the  tongue.  Yet  the  reader  will  notice  that 
this  discussion  is  by  no  means  superficial;  does  not  limit  itself 
to  the  external  symptoms,  but  carries  us  behind  the  symptoms  to 
the  very  malady  itself — the  heart  of  man  out  of  which  bad  words 

flow. Moreover,  observe  that  this  fresh  line  of  thought  does 

not  start  from  the  point  of  gossip  and  foolish  talk  in  general,  but 
from  the  abuse  of  speech  which  was  developing  itself  among  his 
Jewish  brethren  who  were  or  wished  to  be  religious  teachers. 
Evidently  there  must  have  been  an  undue  ambition  to  press  into 
the  sacred  office.  We  may  probably  account  for  it  as  an  out- 
growth of  the  honor  accorded  in  their  early  history  to  prophets 
and  to  priests,  and  later,  to  the  scribes  and  lawyers  who  sat  in 
Moses'  seat.  One  of  the  naturally  resulting  evils  of  such  unhal- 
lowed ambition  would  appear  in  the  too  free  use  of  the  tongue. 
Men  of  such  ambition  must  of  course  seek  to  rise  by  seeming  to 
know  more  than  others ;  not  only  more  than  the  masses  but  more 
than  their  competitors  in  this  office.  In  such  a  social  atmosphere, 
there  would  inevitably  be  envy ;  jealousy  of  rival  claimants  ;  bad 


338  JAMES. — CHAP.   III. 

temper ;  harsh  words  ;  a  spirit  of  severe  criticism ;  the  assump- 
tion of  superiority,  and  a  sad  absence  of  gentleness,  humility, 
the  esteeming  of  others  above  one's  self,  and  the  sweet  charities 
of  the  humble,  loving  spirit.  The  presence  of  such  mischiefs 
among  the  professed  leaders  of  the  people  called  forth  this  faith- 
ful, stingmg  rebuke  of  the  ungoverned  tongue. 

Hence  the  apostle  opens  this  chapter  with  an  admonition  against 
pressing  promiscuously  and  in  too  great  numbers,  into  the  gospel 
ministry  (v.  1);  suggesting  that  we  all  have  many  shortcomings, 
and  that  the  man  who  never  offends  in  word  must  be  a  finished, 
complete  character,  and  able  to  govern  every  appetite  and  impulse 
of  his  nature  (v.  2)  ;  that  as  bits  to  a  horse's  mouth  and  the  helm 
to  a  ship  in  storm,  so  the  tongue  in  man  is  a  controlling  power 
(v.  3,  4) ;  its  desolating  influence  may  be  compared  to  a  lire  of 
which  a  very  little  suffices  to  kindle  a  terrific  conflagration  (v.  5, 
6) ;  or  the  tongue  may  be  thought  of  as  a  wild  beast  needing  to 
be  tamed  for  the  safe  and  profitable  service  of  man,  but  a  tougher 
case  than  any  thing  else  in  nature  (v.  7,  8) ;  put  to  strangely  un- 
like uses,  a  thing  lawless,  capricious,  reasonless ;  now  blessing, 
and  now  cursing  (v.  9,  10);  seeming  to  set  at  nought  all  the  anal- 
ogies of  the  material  world  (v.  11,  12).  If  men  have  wisdom,  let 
them  use  it  in  controlling  the  tongue,  and  let  not  envious  and 
proud  men  glory  in  their  shame  (v.  13-16).  The  wisdom  from 
above  defined  and  commended  (v.  17,  18). 

1.  My  brethren,  be  not  many  masters,  knowing  that  we 
shall  receive  the  greater  condemnation. 

Be  not  many  of  you  teachers,  my  brethren,  knowing  that  we 
who  are  such  must  pass  a  sterner  ordeal,  a  severer  judgment,  in- 
asmuch as  we  bear  more  grave  and  fearful  responsibilities. 

The  word  "master"  is  here  in  the  old  sense,  teacher  as  in  the 
compound  word,  "  school-master" — the  reference  being  to  the  of- 
fice of  religious  teacher.  We  can  not  suppose  the  apostle  to 
mean  that  religious  teaching  is  necessarily  a  sin  deserving  con- 
demnation, so  that  all  who  enter  the  sacred  office  become  thereby  o]> 
noxious  to  severe  judgments  from  God.  If  this  were  his  view, 
he  ought  to  have  warned  all  men  against  it,  and  not  merely  tho 
many.  Our  good  sense  must  interpret  his  meaning  as  above,  viz., 
that  the  office  involved  weighty  and  solemn  responsibilities,  such 
as  should  quench  at  once  the  unhallowed  aspirations  of  men  am- 
bitious for  the  honors  it  might  confer. 

2.  For  in  many  tilings  we  offend  all.  If  any  man  offend 
not  in  word,  the  same  is  a  perfect  man,  and  able  also  to 
bridle  the  whole  body. 

"Offend"  is  here  in  the  sense  of  coining  short  of  perfect  duty; 
by  no  means  in  the  sense  merely  of  giving  offonse  by  displeasing 
other  people.  Strictly  its  primary  meaning  is,  to  trip,  stumble, 
as  opposed  to  safe  and  guod  walking.     This  remark  is   in  place 


JAMES. — CHAP.  III.  339 

here  to  suggest  the  peril  of  fjiiling  under  the  great  and  fearful 
responsibility  of  the  religious  instructor  -whose  words  have  such 
momentous  bearings  and  should  be  ordered,  therefore,  with  con- 
summate wisdom  and  care.  The  man  who  controls- his  tongue  so 
well  as  never  to  trip  with  even  an  unfit,  ill-timed,  or  unkind  word 
may  be  set  down  as  a  perfect  man,  able  to  control  every  other 
organ  of  his  body.  James  thinks  of  the  mouth  and  its  speech  as 
the  chief  outlet  for  the  weaknesses  and  follies  of  vain  thought, 
and  for  the  ebullition  of  the  heart's  bad  passions. 

3.  Behold,  we  put  bits  in  the  horses'  mouths,  that  they 
may  obey  us ;  and  we  turn  about  their  whole  body. 

4.  Behold  also  the  ships,  which  though  they  be  so  great, 
and  are  driven  of  fierce  Avinds,  yet  are  they  turned  about 
with  a  very  small  helm,  whithersoever  the  governor  listeth. 

5.  Even  so  the  tongue  is  a  little  member,  and  boasteth 
great  things. 

In  the  beginning  of  v.  3,  the  better  textual  authorities  give — 
not  "  behold  ;  "  but  now  ?y-— implying  that  we  do,  and  the  results 
are  as  indicated.     But  no  special   improvement  is  made  in  the 

sense  by  this  correction. Bit  and  curb  to   the  horses'   mouth, 

helm  to  the  mighty  ship,  are  admirable  figures  to  illustrate  the 
wholesome  and  efficient  control  which  even  a  small  and  insignifi- 
cant agent  may  exert — in  this  case,  the  human  tongue  upon 
foolish  thought  and  a  bad  heart.  The  point  made  by  the  analogy 
would  seem  to  be  the  controlling  power  of  this  small  member,  the 
tongue,  over  the  passions  and  follies  of  the  soul.  Govern  your 
tongue;  this  will  help  you  exceedingly  toward  governing  yourself 
Use  it  as  men  use  bit  and  curb  for  the  horse,  or  as  the  pilot  does 
the  helm  for  his  vessel,  and  you  wield  a  mighty  power  over  the 
human  heart.  As  put  by  the  apostle,  the  point  is — The  tongue  is 
small,  but  it  takes  on  airs  and  assumes  high  prerogatives.  If  law- 
less and  unrestrained,  it  wields  a  terrible  power  for  mischief. 

5.  Behold,  how  great  a  matter  a  little  fire  kindleth! 

6.  And  the  tongue  is  a  fire,  a  world  of  iniquity  :  so  is  the 
tongue  among  our  members,  that  it  defileth  the  whole  body, 
and  setteth  on  fire  the  course  of  nature ;  and  it  is  set  on  fire 
of  hell. 

Tn  the  last  clause  of  v.  5  the  textual  authorities  vary.  Instead 
of  a  "  little  fire,"  Tischendorf  has  it — "  How  great  a  fire !  How 
much  fuel  the  tongue  kindleth !  A  fire,  a  world  of  iniquity — the 
tongue  is  set  among  the  members,  both  defiling  the  whole  body, 
firing  up  the  course  [or  order]  of  nature,  and  itself  set  on  fire  of 
hell."  The  illustration  breathes  a  terrible  energy ;  the  tongue 
like  a  fire,  of  which  a  spark  only  will  suffice  to  fire  a  city  and  bury 
it  in  the  ruins  of  terrific  conflagration  !  So  is  the  tongue  to  the 
passions  of  men,  whether  of  body  or  of  soul.    Indulged  ia  lawless 


340  JAMES. — CHAP.  III. 

speech,  it  fires  np  those  passions,  stimulates  them  into  fiercer  ex- 
citement even  as  fire  feeds  on  what  it  consumes  and  takes  on  ter- 
rific energy.  Jt  sets  on  fire  the  mass  of  combustible  fuel  in  the 
human  soul — emotions,  feelings,  passions — enkindling  them  to 
fiercer  heat,  and  is  itself  fired  up  as  it  were  by  the  very  flames  of 
hell.  The  bad  spirits  of  tlie  pit  find  congenial  service  in  inflam- 
ing the  already  burning  passions  of  the  human  soul  which  the 
tongue  is  here  supposed  to  have  defiled  and  set  on  fire. 

The  philosophical  fact  underlying  this  illustration  deserves  care- 
ful attention — viz.,  that  giving  utterance  to  thought  and  feeling 
with  the  tongue  intensifies  the  mind's  excitement,  while  the  sup- 
pression of  such  utterance  helps  to  allay  excitement,  and  conse- 
quently promotes  self-control.  We  may  see  this  law  of  our  na- 
ture exemplified  in  all  human  life.  It  reads  us  a  lesson  on  the 
means  and  agencies  of  self-control,  which  can  not  be  too  thor- 
oughly learned  or  too  assiduously  wrought  into  practice.  Those 
who  vigilantly  govern  the  tongue  find  it  comparatively  easy  to 
govern  the  temper  and  the  passions  that  lie  back  of  it  and  are 
demanding  expression  through  its  agency. 

7.  For  every  kind  of  beasts,  and  of  birds,  and  of  serpents, 
and  of  things  in  the  sea,  is  tamed,  and  hath  been  tamed  of 
mankind : 

8.  But  the  tongue  can  no  man  tame  ;  it  is  an  unruly  evil, 
full  of  deadly  poison. 

"VVe  may  excuse  ourselves  from  the  task  of  either  proving  or 
disproving  the  absolute  universality  of  the  fact  here  put,  as  to 
taming  all  known  animals.  The  assertion  was  intended  to  be 
general  only.  For  the  purposes  of  the  writer,  the  question  of 
strict  universality  is  of  no  consequence.  The  tongue,  he  means 
to  say,  is  a  stub)>orn  case,  not  easily  brought  under  man's  control. 

For   the  word   rendered  "unruly,"    some   manuscripts   give 

[akatasketon]  irrepressible,  uncontrollable;  -while  others  (the  bet- 
ter authorities)  have  the  somewhat  milder  term  [akatastaton]  un- 
stable, that  can  not  be  kept  in  its  place  and  in  order. "Full 

of  death-l)earing  poison"  introduces  stiU  another  figure — that  of 
poisonous  venom  for  ever  flowing  out,  for  mischief  and  death. 

Before  we  leave  this  passage  (v.  2-8)  which  treats  of  the  tongue, 
it  may  not  be  amiss  to  inquire  more  closely  whether  James  thinks 
of  the  tongue  as  a  social  mischief,  pernicious  to  society,  or  as  a 
mischief  personal  to  one's  self,  exciting  bad  passions  to  a  fiercer 
heat.  My  notes  thus  far  have  assumed  the  latter  to  be  the  lead- 
ing conception.  This  view  is  supported  by  the  turn  of  thought 
in  the  outset — viz.,  that  the  man  who  never  trips  in  his  words  is 
a  well-})alanced,  soundly  built  character,  able  to  bridle  the  whole 
bodjf.  He  does  not  say  a  man  gifted  to  bless  society;  but  a  man 
miglity  {ov  self-control.  So  also  his  illustrations — ])it  and  curb  for 
the  horse;  helm  and  rudder  for  the  ship — are  instruments  for  self- 
government.  He  means  })y  thimi  to  show  that  the  tongue  is  a 
power  which  the  man  himself  must  use  in  self-culture  and  self- 


JAMES. — CHAP.    III.  341 

control.  When  he  compares  the  tongue  to  a  fire,  it  is  a  fire  work- 
ing inward  upon  the  other  members  and  passions  of  the  man  him- 
self, and  not  upon  society  without.  When  he  comes  to  think  of 
the  tongue  as  a  wild  beast  to  be  tamed  lest  it  discharge  its  deadly 
poison  in  cursings  of  men,  he  begins  to  contemplate  Its  social  re- 
lations, its  dangerous  power  and  mischief  upon   society. We 

need  not  suppose  that  the  writer  ever  forgets  altogether  that  man 
is  a  social  being,  always  in  social  relations,  so  that  his  tongue 
may  work  mischief  to  mankind  outside  of  himself;  but  the  lead- 
ing thought  through  these  verses  is  of  the  reactionary  influence 
of  the  tongue  upon  a  man's  own  soul — his  own  impulses  and  pas- 
sions. 

9.  Therewith  bless  we  God,  even  the  Father ;  and  there- 
with curse  we  men,  which  are  made  after  the  similitude  of 
God. 

10.  Out  of  the  same  mouth  proceedeth  blessing  and  curs- 
ing.    My  brethren,  these  things  ought  not  so  to  be. 

With  the  same  tongue  we  bless  the  Lord  (so  the  better  text), 
even  the  Father,  and  curse  men  made  in  his  image;  out  of  the 
same  mouth  both  blessings  and  cursings  !  Strange !  Unaccount- 
able !  With  powers  which  ally  him  to  the  angels,  why  should  he 
make  himself  a  fiend?  When  with  tongue  and  voice  he  might 
bless  the  Lord  in  sympathy  with  all  the  holy,  in  noblest  songs  of 
praise,  alas  that  he  should  desecrate  his  mouth  to  cursings  liko 
the  demons  of  the  pit!  Well  might  James  say:  "My  brethren, 
these  things  ought  not  so  to  be !" 

11.  Doth  a  fountain  send  forth  at  the  same  place  sweet 
water  and  bitter? 

12.  Can  the  fig  tree,  my  brethren,  bear  olive  berries? 
either  a  vine,  figs  ?  so  ca7i  no  fountain  both  yield  salt  water 
and  fresh. 

The  realm  of  material  nature  is  never  so  inconsistent,  never  so 
perverts  itself.  Does  a  fountain  ever  send  forth  at  the  same  fis- 
sure,  the  same  rock-clift,  both  the  sweet  and   the  bitter  ? In 

the  last  clause  of  v.  12,  the  older  manuscripts  have  it  thus: 
"Neither  can  salt  water  yield  fresh." 

13.  Who  is  a  wise  man  and  endued  with  knowledge  among 
you  ?  let  him  show  out  of  a  good  conversation  his  works  with 
meekness  of  wisdom. 

14.  But  if  ye  have  bitter  envying  and  strife  in  your 
hearts,  glory  not,  and  lie  not  against  the  truth. 

Ye  would  be  thought  wise  and  intelligent,  even  above  your  fel- 
lows. If  so,  be  careful  to  show  it.  By  an  upright,  honorable  life 
(life  being  the  true  sense  of  the  word  translated  ''conversation") 
set  forth  works  adorned  with  the  meekness  of  wisdom.  If  your 
heart  has  bitter  envy  and  strife,  boast  not,  lie  not  against  the  truth. 


342  JAMES. — CHAP.  III. 

Above  all  things,  be  not  proud  of  your  sin ;  glory  not  in  your  own 
shame!  Did  they  call  this  being  spirited,  justly  indignant  at 
abuse,  consciously  self-asserting,  or  some  other  commendable  or 
fair-sounding  name?  Let  them  beware  how  they  attempt  to 
glorify  a  selfish  spirit  that  can  not  bear  the  light  of  truth.  Let 
things  be  called  by  their  right  names  lest  men  deceive  themselves 
into  believing  that  sin  is  holy,  that  envy  and  strife  are  noble  qual- 
ities ! 

15.  This  wisdom  descendeth  not  from  above,  but  is 
earthly,  sensual,  devilish. 

16.  For  where  envying  and  strife  is,  there  is  confusion  and 
every  evil  work. 

17.  But  the  wdsdom  that  is  from  above  is  first  pure,  then 
peaceable,  gentle,  and  easy  to  be  entreated,  full  of  mercy 
and  good  fruits,  without  partiality,  and  without  hypocrisy. 

18.  And  the  fruit  of  righteousness  is  sown  in  peace  of 
them  that  make  peace. 

Such  wisdom  as  this  of  yours  which  begets  envy  and  strife  in 
the  heart,  comes  not  down  from  above,  but  wells  up  from  beneath ; 

is  of  earth — of  man's  sensualities;  of  the  devil. Envying  and 

strife  beget  "confusion" — i.  e.,  disorder,   seditions,  .aggressions 

upon  others — yea,  every  evil  thing. Over  against  this,  mark 

the  qualities  and  fruits  of  that  wisdom  which  cometh  from  above 
— such  as  men  obtain  in  answer  to  prayer  (1 :  5).  First  of  all  it 
is  pure  (unselfish,  benevolent) ;  then  peaceable,  gentle,  easily 
persuaded — i.  e.,  yielding  to  the  wishes  and  the  interests  of  oth- 
ers ;  full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits  because  sincerely,  intensely 
loving  the  happiness  of  others.  The  word  for  "without  partial- 
ity" (adiakritos)  by  etymology  should  signify  making  no  unjust 
discriminations;  and  construed  in  the  light  of  the  passage  (2: 
1-9)  may  be  supposed  to  refer  specially  to  "  respect  of  persons." 

"  Without  hypocrisy"  means  exempt  from  all  desire  to  appear 

better  than  they  really  are.  No  one  element  of  character  in  the 
Pharisaic  Jew  was  more  intensely  offensive  to  Jesus  than  their 

hypocrisy. Blessed  are  the  peacemakers,  for  they  are  sowing 

seeds  that  shall  ripen  into  fruits  of  peace  and  blessedness  for 
their  future  life! 

The  word  "  wisdom"  as  used  here  (v.  13,  15,  17)  means  more 
than  discreet  conduct,  more  than  a  sagacious  judgment  as  to  the 
best  measures  for  attaining  one's  desired  object.  It  certainly  in- 
cludes the  choice  of  the  best  objects  of  pursuit.  We  must  give 
it  essentially  that  broad  high  sense  which  tlie  word  has  in  Job 
(28  :  28)  and  in  Solomon  :  "  The  fear  of  the  Lord,"  true  piety,  the 
character  which  is  built  upon  the  truth  of  God,  and  which  accepts 
his  counsels  as  one's  law  of  life.  In  this  sense  it  comes  down 
from  above  and  not  up  from  beneath.  It  is  the  fruit  of  divine 
influence  and  of  heavenly  truth  upon  the  soul,  and  is  not  the  fruit 
of  base  passion,  begotten  of  depraved  nature  and  of  Satan's  insti- 
gations. 


JAMES. — CHAP.   IV,  343 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Turbulence  and  political  commotion  rebuked;  traced  to  evil 
passions  (1-3);  emanating  from  the  spirit  of  the  world;  always 
hostile  to  the  Spirit  of  God  (v.  4).  To  overcome  this  spirit,  God 
gives  grace  to  the  humble  (v,  5,  6)  ;  God  to  be  sought  in  submis- 
sion, but  the  devil  resisted  (v.  7,  8) ;  penitence,  humiliation  be- 
fore God,  brings  his  blessing  (v.  9,  10) ;  evil  speaking  passes 
judgment  upon  God's  law  (v.  11,  12);  human  schemes  of  traflGic 
for  gain  should  not  forget  the  uncertainties  of  life  (v.  13-16). 
Not  to  do  the  good  -we  know — sin  (v.  17). 

1.  From  whence  come  wars  and  fightings  among  you?  come 
they  not  hence,  even  of  your  lusts  that  war  in  your  members  ? 

2.  Ye  lust,  and  have  not :  ye  kill,  and  desire  to  have,  and 
can  not  obtain :  ye  fight  and  war,  yet  ye  have  not,  because 
ye  ask  not. 

3.  Ye  ask,  and  receive  not,  because  ye  ask  amiss,  that  ye 
may  consume  it  upon  your  lusts. 

The  words  used  here — "  wars,"  "fightings,"  "  killing"  seem  to 
carry  the  mind  beyond  social  into  political  life,  indicating  a  state 
of  political  unrest ;  the  uprising  of  men,  in  considerable  bodies, 
for  purposes  of  insurrection.  It  is  a  matter  of  history  that  dur- 
ing the  period  within  which  this  epistle  must  be  dated,  all  Judea 
and  Galilee  were  in  fearful  commotion ;  seditions,  insurrections, 
petty  wars,  involving  the  masses  of  the  people,  were  rife  and 
terrible.  All  this  Jesus  had  predicted  and  of  this  very  period : 
— "  Ye  shall  hear  of  wars  and  rumors  of  wars;  for  nation  shall 
rise  up  against  nation  and  kingdom  against  kingdom;  men  shall 
betray  one  another  and  hate  one  another  "  (Matt.  24 :  6,  7,  10). 
But  how  much  the  condition  of  the  mother  country  afiected  the 
Jews  of  the  dispersion  we  have  but  scanty  means  of  certain 
knowledge.  Inasmuch  as  the  disturbances  in  Judea  and  Galilee 
hinged  chiefly  upon  resistance  to  the  great  Roman  power,  the 
presumption  is  strong  that  the  same  causes  led  to  similar  results 
in  other  countries,  equally  in  subjection  to  Rome. 

It  must  have  been  a  fearful  state  of  society  if  Christian  people 
were  involving  themselves  in  such  scenes  of  passion,  conflict, 
blood  and  war,  whether  these  were  limited  to  merely  social  life, 
or  took  on  such  dimensions  and  character  as  to  be  properly  polit- 
ical.  James  denounces  every  thing  of  this  sort  as  utterly  un- 
justifiable ;  begs  them  to  look  at  the  causes — the  fiery,  ungoverned 
passions  of  carnal  souls,  such  as  must  always  provoke  resistance, 
must  always  fail  of  their  object,  evermore  exciting  like  uncon- 
trolled passion  in  other  men,  provoking  blow  for  blow,  and  death 

for  death. The  best  manuscripts  begin  the  chapter:—"  Whence 

are    wars    and    whence    are   fightings  among  you?" — a  change 


344  JAMES. — ciiAr.  IV. 

Avliich    calls    attention    yet  more  emphatically    to    the    exciting 

causes  of  collisions,  quarrels,  and  blood-violence  so  terri])le. 

The  allusions  to  "  not  askinii;"  i.  c,  in  prayer,  and  to  their  asking; 
and  not  receiving  because  their  objects  and  aims  were  only  self- 
isli,  seem  to  imply  that  these  petty  wars  were  regarded  as  in 
some  sense  relit/ious,  ostensibly  for  religious  purposes.  This  was 
historically  true  of  those  fearful  uprisings  and  insurrections 
Avhich  convulsed  Judea  and  Galilee  for  several  years  prior  to  the 
great  Jewish-Roman  war  which  ended  in  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem. The  instigators  of  resistance  to  Kome  held  it  to  be  a  sin 
against  the  God  of  Israel  to  pay  tribute  or  in  any  way  acknowl- 
edge allegiance  to  any  other  king  than  their  own  Messiah.  It  is 
supposable  that  asking  God's  help  in  such  wars  might  be  only 
asking  amiss,  (badly  in  Greek)  to  consume  it  upon  their  lusts — 
a  towering  and  altogether  worldly  ambition  being  at  the  very 
bottom  of  the  prayer.  'J'he  case  has  in  it  a  great  and  fruitful 
moral  lesson — suggesting  the  searching  inquiry —  Wh)/  dol  pray  ? 
What  lies  at  the  bottom  ? 

4.  Ye  adulterers  and  adulteresses,  know  ye  not  that  the 
friendship  of  the  world  is  enmity  with  God?  whosoever 
therefore  will  be  a  friend  of  the  world  is  the  enemy  of  God. 

The  better  manuscripts  have  the  first  clause — not  "  ye  adulter- 
ers and  adulteresses ;  "  but  simply — "  adulteresses ! "  and  then  con- 
nect it  with  the  previous  verse — thus  :  "  that  ye  may  consume  it 
upon  your  lusts,  adulteresses !  "  This  reading  must  be  preferred. 
Then  we  must  give  the  word  the  sense  it  has  throughout  the  Old 
Testament  prophets — that  spiritual  adultery  in  which  they  di- 
vorced their  hearts  from  their  covenant  God,  and  gave  it  to  some 
idol.  James  assumes  that  their  professed  religion  is  no  better 
than  idolatry — the  giving  of  the  heart's  homage  to  worldly,  un- 
godly ambition..  Their  spirit  was  of  the  world,  and  not  of  God. 
And  did  they  not  know  that  the  friendship  of  the  world  is  en- 
mity against  God  ;  that  if  any  one  wills  to  be — chooses  in  the 
true  purpose  of  his  heart  (the  word  means)  to  be  a  friend  of  the 
world,  he  constitutes  himself  thereby  an  enemy  of  God  ?  For 
God  asks  us  to  serve  him  as  Supreme  King,  giving  him  our  whole 
heart  in  loving  obedience — all  which  is  utterly  unlike  and  forever 
inconsistent  with  all  the  ambitions,  loves,  affections  that  are  only 
earthly  and  sensual. 

5.  Do  ye  think  that  the  scripture  saitli  in  vain,  The  spirit 
that  dwelleth  in  us  histeth  to  envy? 

G.  But  he  giveth  more  j^rnce.  Wherefore  he  saith,  God 
resistetli  the  proud,  but  giveth  grace  unto  the  humble. 

Here  the  improved  text  reads  the  first  clause  as  a  general  state- 
iiKsnt,  made  with  no  si)ecial  reference  to  the  clause  next  succeed- 
ing, thus:  "Or  think  ye  that  the  Scripture  speaks  in  vain  ?  " 

The  Scripture  every-where  sets  forth  that  the  love  of  God  and  the 


JAMES. — CHAP.  IV.  345 

love  of  the  ^Yorld  are  antagonistic  to  each  other,  and  can  never 
have  the  least  common  sympathy.  Are  these  representations 
false  and  vain?     By  no  means. 

On  this  second  ckiuse  of  v.  5,  two  questions  of  interpretation 
arise: — (1.)  Whether  "the  spirit  that  dAvelleth  in  us"  is  the  hu- 
man soul,  or  the  Holy  Ghost?  (2.)  Whether  the  clause  should  be 
read  affirmatively,  or  interrogatively?  (1.)  The  received  version, 
sustained  by  many  expositors,  supposes  the  indwelling  spirit  here 
to  be  the  human  soul  under  its  depraved  passions.  But  the  form 
of  expression  seems  rather  to  indicate  a  spirit  from  without  our- 
selves, entering  to  dicell  within  us.  And  the  usage  of  the  New 
Testament  in  speaking  of  the  Holy  Ghost  strongly  favors  this 
view.  "  Know  ye  not  that  ye  are  the  temple  of  God,  and  the 
Spirit  of  God  dicelleth  in  you  ?  "  (1  Cor.  3:  16.)  "As  God  hath 
said — 1  will  dwell  in  them  and  walk  in  them,"  etc.  (2  Cor.  6  :  16). 
These  considerations  seem  to  me  to  have  decisive  weight.  (2.)  If 
the  reference  be  to  the  Holy  Ghost  dwelling  in  us,  the  clause 
must  be  read  interrogatively:  Does  the  Spirit  of  God,  dwelling 
in  us,  push,  press  us  toward  envy?  Never !  All  his  impulses  are 
toward  love,  good-will ;  toward  true  and  supreme  joy  in  others' 
happiness,  and  not  toward  envy.  Thus  we  read  the  whole  verse 
harmoniously  and  sensibly :  Think  ye  that  the  Scripture  speaks 
falsely,  vainly  ?  Does  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  that  dwelleth  in 
you  inspire  lusts  toward  and  unto  envy?  By  no  means.  On  the 
contrary  (v.  6)  he  gives  more  grace;  more  and  yet  more;  per- 
petually in  greater  measure  as  men  more  greatly  need.  For  this 
reason  he  saith  in  the  Scripture  (^.  e.,  Prov.  3 :  34,  where  the  Sep- 
tuagint  has  these  identical  words) — "  God  resisteth  the  proud  but 

giveth  grace  to  the  lowly." That  the  lowly  in  spirit  find  favor 

before  the  great  and  ever-glorious  God  is  put  by  Israel's  greatest 
prophet  in  terms  at  once  sublimely  grand  and  tenderly  touching : 
"  Thus  saith  the  High  and  Lofty  One  that  inhabiteth  eternity, 
whose  name  is  Holy ;  I  dwell  in  the  high  and  hely  place ;  with 
Mm  also  who  is  of  a  contrite  and  humble  spirit,  to  revive  the 
spirit  of  the  humble  and  to  revive  the  heart  of  the  contrite  ones." 
"The  heaven  is  my  throne;  the  earth  is  my  footstool;  but  to 
this  man  will  I  look,  even  to  him  that  is  poor  and  of  a  contrite 
spirit,  and  trembleth  at  my  word"  (Isa.  57:  15  and  66:  1,  2). 
What  can  be  said  more  to  impress  the  moral  fitness  and  the  su- 
preme blessedness  of  having  a  humble  and  contrite  spirit  in  the 
presence  of  the  majesty  and  purity  of  the  Infinite  God ! 

7.  Submit  yourselves  therefore  to  God.  Resist  the  devil, 
and  he  will  flee  from  you. 

8.  Draw  nigh  to  God,  and  he  will  draw  nigh  to  you. 
Cleanse  your  hands,  ije  sinners ;  and  purify  your  hearts,  ye 
double-minded. 

This  passage  is  in  style  a  model  of  terseness  and  antithesis. 

Place  yourselves  under  God  but  against   the  devil.     Bow  sub- 


3-46  JAMES. — CHAP.    IV. 

missively  to  the  one;  stand  in  sternest  opposition  an;a)nst  the 
other.  Never  resist  God;  never  yield  to  the  devil.  Kcsist  the 
devil,  and  he  will  flee :  draw  nigh  to  God,  and  he  will  draw  nigh 
to  you.  Ah,  truly,  for  he  is  never  far  from  the  heart  that  humbly 
seeks  him.  The  father  of  that  prodigal  son  saw  him  coming 
when  yet  a  great  way  off,  and  his  bowels  moved  for  him  !  How 
easy  it  will  always  be  to  find  God  when  the  soul  is  deeply  stricken 
for  sin  and  humbled  before  the  great  and  good  Father !  But  let 
the  penitence  of  your  soul  be  deep  and  honest; — therefore  James 
adds  the  forceful  words — "  Cleanse  your  hands,  ye  sinners ;  " 
cleanse  them  not  with  tears  only  but  with  restitutions — with  the 

putting  ofl'  and    away  of  every   unclean  thing. Purify  your 

heart,  ye  double-souled  men — who  have  one  soul  still  cleaving  to 
the  world,  while  ye  vainly  think  to  give  another  to  God!  Of 
course  this  is  all  hypocrisy ;  for  really,  in  the  truth  of  the  case, 
man  never  has  but  one  soul.  The  thought  of  giving  one  to  God 
and  keeping  the  other  for  sin  shows  plainly  that  the  one  only 
soul  is  withheld  from  God  and  given  to  sin  and  selfishness. 
This  is  one  of  Satan's  metaphysical  delusions.  He  is  a  thorough 
adept  in  such  fallacies,  if  he  can  make  them  pass  for  truth ! 

9.  Be  afflicted,  and  mourn,  and  weep :  let  your  laughter 
be  turned  to  mourning,  and  your  joy  to  heaviness. 

10.  Humble  yourselves  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  and  he 
shall  lift  you  up. 

Still  James  presses  the  point  of  genuine,  thorough  contrition 
fjr  sin.  In  this  there  is  scarcely  the  least  danger  of  overdoing; 
few  will  ever  go  too  deep.  Indeed  there  is  no  going  too  deep, 
provided  only  that  we  do  not  misjudge  God  ;  that  our  sorrow  be 
duly  tempered  with  the  assurance  that  our  Father's  mercy  is  in- 
deed great,  above  the  heavens,  and  that  He  loves  to  forgive.  Let 
it  be  our  part  to  humble  ourselves  before  the  Lord ;  his,  to  lift  us 
up.  He  will  do  his  part  full  soon  when  we  have  done  ours  full 
honestly  and  thorougldy.  There  is  never  the  least  reason  for  so- 
licitude lest  God  be  slow  to  begin,  or  lest  he  leave  his  uplifting 
work  ))ut  half  done.  Oh  how  does  he  surprise  the  really  contrite 
soul  with  the  forth-breaking  beams  of  his  light  and  of  his  love! 
Ere  we  are  aware,  and  long  before  it  seemed,  in  our  view,  to  })e 
called  for,  behold,  God  has  come,  and  his  gentle  hand  is  felt,  lift- 
ing the  sin-stricken  soul  up  into  peaceful  trust  and  repose. So 

have  these  words  of  our  epistle  been  verified  in  human  experi- 
ence !  So,  all  down  the  ages,  have  they  proved  tiiemselves  to  l^e 
words  in  season  for  the  comfort  of  broken  hearts  and  contrite 
spirits. 

11.  Speak  not. evil  one  of  another,  brethren.  He  that 
spcaketh  evil  of  hk  brother,  and  judgoth  his  brother,  speak- 
eth  evil  of  the  law,  and  judgcth  the  law;  l)ut  if  thou  judge 
the  law,  thou  art  not  a  doer  of  the  law,  but  a  judge. 


JAMES. — CHAP.  IV.  347 

12.  There  is  one  lawgiver,  who  is  able  to  save  and  to 
destroy:  who  art  thou  that  judgest  another? 

Here  is  a  new  subject — that  of  evil-speaking,  censoriousness, 
slander  of  Christian  brethren. The  best  manuscripts  make  im- 
provement in  two  points,  reading — "  Speaketh  evil  of  his  brother  " 
or  (not  "and")  or  "judgeth  his  brother."  In  v.  12,  add  to  law- 
giver the  wordB '^  and  judge,"  reading  it — "There  is  one  Law- 
giver and  Judge,"  i.  e.,  One  who  is  both  Lawgiver  and  Judge,  able 
to  save  and  to  destroy,  etc. 

The  strong  point  made  in  this  passage  is  that  speaking  evil  of 
a  brother  or  judging  him  censoriously,  is  virtually  condemning 
God's  law.  It  practically  assumes  that  God's  law,  forbidding  such 
evil-speaking  is  itself  lorong.  For  surely,  the  man  who  breaks 
God's  law  and  does  not  repent  of  it  or  condemn  himself  for  it, 
makes  a  square  issue  with  God  and  virtually  condemns  his  law. 
Either  the  man  who  breaks  the  law  is  wrong,  or  God  who  made 
the  law  is  wrong.  If  the  law-breaker  is  right,  the  law-maker  can 
not  be  right.  Breaking  the  law,  therefore,  is  virtually  traducing, 
condemning  Him  who  made  it.  So  James  says — He  who  speaks 
evil  of  his  brother  speaks  against  God,  passes  his  judgment 
against  God's  law.  This  man  is  not  a  doer  of  the  laAv  but  a  judge 
condemning  the  law!  There  is  one  lawgiver  and  judge,  able  to 
save  or  to  destroy; — to  save  the  obedient;  to  destroy  the  trans- 
gressor. Who  art  thou  that  thou  shouldest  presume  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment against  thy  brother,  and  so  doing,  pass  thy  judgment  against 
the  great  God ! 

13.  Go  to  now,  ye  that  say,  To-day  or  to-morrow  we  will 
go  into  such  a  city,  and  continue  there  a  year,  and  buy  and 
sell,  and  get  gain : 

14.  Whereas  ye  know  not  what  shall  he  on  the  morrow. 
For  what  is  your  life  ?  It  is  even  a  vapor,  that  appeareth 
for  a  little  time,  and  then  vanisheth  away. 

15.  For  that  ye  ought  to  say,  If  the  Lord  will,  we  shall 
live,  and  do  this,  or  that. 

16.  But  now  ye  rejoice  in  your  boastings :  all  such  rejoic- 
ing is  evil. 

Another  new  subject — the  case  of  men  who  travel  abroad  for 
purposes  of  traffic  and  gain,  planning  and  presuming  upon  life, 
and  perhaps  running  increased  risks,  with  no  just  estimate  of 
the  dangers,  and  no  proper  recognition  of  their  dependence  upon 
God  for  their  preservation.  Probably  this  passion  for  gain  by 
traffic  in  foreign  lands  led  to  the  dispersion  of  those  Jews  to 
whom  James  is  writing.  We  may  suppose  they  left  their  native 
country  under  this  impulse,    and  were    tempted  again  to  push 

out    still    further.      Hence    these    admonitions. "Go  to  ' — a 

phrase  now  mostly  obsolete — simply  calls  attention  to  what  is  to 
be  said; — Come  now,  think  of  this. The  moral  purpose  of  the 


348  JAMES. — CHAP.    IV. 

passage  seems  to  be  to  su_!igest  that  such  perils  of  life  should  not 
be  encountered  recklessly;  that  continued  life  should  not  be  pre- 
sumed upon  without  a  perpetual  trust  in  God  and  a  committal  of 
our  unknown  future  to  his  care ;  and  above  all,  that  it  by  no 
means  becomes  us  to  rejoice  in  boastful  confidence  of  future  life 
and  future  gain  by  traffic.  An  abiding  sense  of  dependence  on 
God  for  life  and  for  all  its  good  tends  to  moderate  our  otherwise 
too  eager  aspirations  and  struggles  for  wealth — putting  faith  in 
God's  providence  in  the  place  of  faith  in  hoarded  treasures.  This 
is  morally  wholesome. 

17.  Therefore  to  him  that  knoweth  to  do  good,  and  doetli 
it  not,  to  him  it  is  sin. 

The  word  "  therefore  "  assumes  a  logical  connection  of  this  verse 

with  something  preceding.  What  is  this  connection  ? Obviously 

it  must  be  sought  in  the  case  and  the  exhortation  that  immediately 
precede;  partly  because  it  is  the  nearest  antecedent  thought;  and 
partly  because  the  case  of  rich  men  is  resumed  in  the  opening  of 

the  next  chapter,  and  therefore  had  not  passed  out  of  mind. 

Probably  therefore,  James  assumes  that  those  speculating,  traffick- 
ing men  did  not  judge  wisely  and  well,  and  did  not  do  as  well  as 
they  kneio,  the  passion  for  getting  rich  fast — a  fortune  in  a  year 
— pushing  them  on  into  real  sin.  He  brings  the  case  to  issue 
under  the  general  principle — every  man  bound  to  do  all  the  good 
he  knows  how  to  do ;  always  the  best  thing  for  the  good  of  him- 
self, his  friends,  the  world.  To  know  what  is  the  good  and  best 
thing,  and  not  do  it— is  sin.  The  knowledge  carries  with  it  the 
obligation.  To  go  against  the  knowledge  is  to  go  against  the  ob- 
ligation, and  this,  of  course,  is  sin.  If  he  does  not  know  any 
thing  better  which  is  possible  for  him  to  do,  he  violates  no  obliga- 
tion, is  charged  in  the  case  with  no  sin.  Knowledge  of  duty 
measures  obligation;  obligation  disregarded,  is  the  essence  of  sin. 

In  this  passage,  as  in  several  others  in  this  epistle,  we  are 
struck  with  the  remarkably  just  metaphysics  of  this  apostle.  He 
thinks  clearly,  analyzes  moral  action  profoundly,  carries  the  mind 
back  to  fundamental  principles  with  a  master's  hand.  He  has  no 
trouble  in  explaining  the  difference  between  God's  tempting  man 
and  man's  tempting  himself  He  can  give  the  sinless  antece- 
dents of  real  sinning  in  the  processes  of  lust,  working  under  self- 
indulgence  unto  real  transgression.  In  the  passage  here,  we  sec 
a  perfect  philosophy  as  to  the  relation  which  knowledge  of  duty 
bears  to  sin.  If  all  human-built  systems  of  theology  had  been 
constructed  with  the  aid  of  such  metaphysical  science  as  we  have 
in  this  epistle  of  James,  there  had  been  fewer  stumbling-l)locks 
and  less  repulsion  in  human  symbols  of  faith  and  in  the  doctrines 
taught  by  good  men  from  the  pulpit  and  the  press.  The  enlight- 
ened common  sense  which  reigns  throughout  the  metaphysical 
principles  and  philosophy  of  the  Scriptures  is  simply  wonderful. 
It  is  not  the  least  among  the  internal  proofs  of  its  real  inspira- 
tion. 


JAMES. — CHAP.  V.  349 


CHAPTER    V. 

Rich  men  admonished  of  their  impending  retribution  (v.  1-3); 
the  hiborers  whom  they  have  defrauded  cry  unto  God  against 
them  (v.  4) ;  their  dissolute  lives  end  in  ruin  (v.  5) ;  their  op- 
pression of  just  but  unresisting  men  awaits  God's  retribution 
(v.  6) ;  patience  should  be  sustained  by  the  hope  of  the  Lord's 
near  coming  (v.  7,  8);  admonition  against  murmuring  (v.  9); 
examples  of  patience  (v.  10,  11);  against  swearing  (v.  12);  prayer 
of  faith  for  the  sick  (v.  13-15);  mutual  confession  of  faults  and 
effectual  prayer  (v.  16) ;  Elijah's  prayer  an  example  (v.  17,  18)  ; 
the  blessedness  of  converting  sinners  (v.  19,  20). 

1.  Go  to  DOW,  ye  rich  men,  weep  and  howl  for  your  mis- 
eries that  shall  come  upon  you. 

2.  Your  riches  are  corrupted,  and  your  garments  are  moth- 
eaten. 

3.  Your  gold  and  silver  is  cankered ;  and  the  rust  of 
them  shall  be  a  witness  against  you,  and  shall  eat  your  flesli 
as  it  were  fire.  Ye  have  heaped  treasure  together  for  the 
last  days. 

The  apostle  assumes  that  these  rich  men  have  become  rich  by 
oppressing  their  laborers  or  by  fraud.  Riches  so  made  must 
surely  react  to  torture  their  possessors.  Nothing  can  be  more 
forcible  than  the  figure  here  used — the  very  rust  on  their  silver 
and  gold  bearing  witness  against  them  before  God,  and  eating 
their  flesh  like  fire.  The  treasures  they  have  amassed  are  heaped 
up,  not  for  future  enjoyment  but  for  future  torment.  "  In  the  last 
days" — time  then  future,  perhaps  somewhat  indefinite,  yet  sure 
to  come,  and  none  the  less  sure  for  being  indefinite — this  ill- 
gotten  gain  would  come  up  to  plague  them,  testifying  both  to 
their  own  consciences  and  before  God's  throne  of  their  iniquities 
and  wrongs. The  allusion  to  garments  as  "moth-eaten"  re- 
minds us  that  in  those  oriental  regions,  clothing  as  well  as  gold 
and  silver  was  amassed  and  hoarded — perishable,  of  course,  yet 
found  very  commonly  among  the  treasured  stores  of  the  wealthy. 

4.  Behold,  the  hire  of  the  laborers  who  have  reaped  down 
your  fields,  which  is  of  you  kept  back  by  fraud,  crieth :  and 
the  cries  of  them  which  have  reaped  are  entered  into  the 
ears  of  the  Lord  of  Sabaoth. 

5.  Ye  have  lived  in  pleasure  on  the  earth,  and  been 
w^anton ;  ye  have  nourished  your  hearts,  as  in  a  day  of 
slaughter. 

6.  Ye  have  condemned  and  killed  the  just ;  and  he  doth 
not  resist  you. 


350  JAMES. — CHAP.   V. 

The  "hire,"  the  promised  and  just  wages  of  the  laborer,  kept 
back  by  fraud,  in  violation  of  promise  and  of  right,  cries  to  God 
against  them.     The  ears  of  the  mighty  Lord  of  Hosts  are  open  to 

such   cries. "Ye    have    nourished" — fattened — "your  hearts 

for  a  day  of  slaughter^  In  the  phrase  "  as  in  a  day,"  etc.,  the 
better  text  omits  the  word  "  as."  The  writer  alludes  to  the  fat- 
ting of  animals  for  slaughter — fed  to  the  full  to  fit  them  for  the 
table.  So  they  had  been  living  in  luxury,  fattening  themselves 
for  a  swift  and  terrible  death  !  They  had  even  pushed  their  op- 
pression of  the  poor  to  the  extreme  of  condemning  and  killing. 
Their  victims  had  fallen  unresisting :  all  the  more  surely  would 
God  arise  to  avenge  his  murdered  poor ! 

Throughout  this  portrayal  of  the  retributions  that  shall  befall 
rich  oppressors,  we  may  notice  that  they  come  in  two  lines  of 
suffering,  viz:  {a.)  The  reaction  of  conscious  guilt  upon  a  moral 
nature;  and,  (6.)  The  retribution  that  must  come  from  a  right- 
eous God.  There  is  no  attempt  to  exclude  either,  or  to  exalt 
either  in  comparison  with  the  other.  Each  and  both  are  repre- 
sented as  alike  sure  and  as  fearfully  terrible.  "  Shall  eat  your  flesh 
as  it  were  fire,"  turns  our  thought  to  the  moral  reaction  of  crime 
upon  the  criminal's  own  moral  nature ;  while  the  cries  of  his 
wronged  victim,  going  up  to  the  ear  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  testify 
that  the  mighty  God  will  not  leave  the  case  to  the  sole  operation 
of  a  torturing  conscience,  but  will  inflict  retributions  of  his  own, 
sufficing  at  least  to  show  that  his  sympathies  are  for  ever  with 
the  oppressed  and  against  the  oppressors. 

7.  Be  patient  therefore,  brethren,  unto  the  coming  of  the 
Lord.  Behold,  the  husbandman  waiteth  for  the  precious 
fruit  of  the  earth,  and  hath  long  patience  for  it,  until  he 
receive  the  early  and  latter  rain. 

8.  Be  ye  also  patient ;  stablish  your  hearts :  for  the  com- 
ing of  the  Lord  drawetli  nigh. 

Unquestionably  the  near  coming  of  the  Lord  is  here  for  a  mo- 
tive to  patience,  especially  to  patience  under  the  wrongs  and  op- 
pressions which  Christians  were  enduring  in  part  perhaps  from 
the  overbearing  of  the  rich;  in  part  from  persecutions  fatal  to 
life.  These  are  the  points  which  appear  in  the  previous  context. 
Consequently  the  "coming  of  the  Lord"  is  here  assumed  to  be  a 
time  of  retribution  upon  the  wicked — at  once  the  day  of  redress 
and  deliverance  for  the  righteous  and  of  just  punishment  upon 
the  ungodly  oppressor.  Here,  therefore,  we  n)eet  tlie  grave  ques- 
tion:  What  "coming"  was  this?  Wliat  views  had  James  of  a 
"  coming  of  the  Lord,"  then  near,  which  should  bring  with  it 
these  results? 

It  scarcely  admits  of  doubt  that  this  expectation  of  a  near  coming 
of  the  Lord — common  to  James;  to  Paul  (Rom.  13:  14  and  Phil. 
4:  5);  to  the  writer  to  tin;  Hebrews  (10:  25,  37);  to  Peter  (1 
Eps.  4:7);  and  to  John  (1  Eps.  2:  18) — was  begotten  in  their 


JAMES. — CHAP.  V.  351 

minds  by  Christ's  own  words,  of  wliich  we  may  take  Matthew  24 
as  essentially  embodying  the  prophecies  upon  which  they  rested. 
In  that  prophecy  they  saw  the  future  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
and  understood  it  to  be  within  that  generation.  The  cardinal 
idea  underlying  the  ruin  of  that  city  was  divine  reirihution  for 
the  great  sin  of  the  Jewish  nation.  It  was  clothed  in  strong,  ter- 
rible imagery  of  such  sort  as  must  have  made  the  impression  of  a 
fearful,  overwhelming  catastrophe,  coupled  perhaps  in  some  unde- 
fined relation  with  the  final  judgment.  Even  to  us  as  we  read  it 
to-day,  it  carries  our  thought  strongly  to  a  scene  of  retribution 
which  shall  involve,  not  Jerusalem  and  the  Jewish  nation  alone, 
but  the  whole  world.  I  think  we  must  admit  that  Jesus  intended 
to  connect  the  earlier  judgment  with  the  later — the  judgment  on 
Jerusalem  with  the  final  judgment  on  the  world — in  such  a  way 
that  the  former  should  be  at  once  a  pledge  and  an  illustration  of 
the  latter.  This  he  might  properly  do  without  involving  any  doc- 
trine as  to  the  time  when  the  latter  would  take  place.  The  ques- 
tion of  time  as  to  the  final  judgment,  it  was  of  no  importance 
whatever  to  reveal.  It  seems  not  to  have  been  revealed  at  all  to 
the  apostles.  They  may  have  had  their  own  ideas;  but  not  from 
the  revealing  Spirit.  Jesus  said  to  them  very  definitely :  "  It  is 
not  for  you  to  know  the  times  and  the  seasons"  (Acts  1:  7).  It 
involves  no  impeachmentof  their  real  inspiration  for  all  purposes 
of  important  Christian  truth  and  instruction  to  suppose  that  they 
were  not  enlightened  as  to  the  time  of  Christ's  coming  for  the  final 
judgment.  They  may  have  expected  more  at  the  point  of  Jerusa- 
lem's fall  than  the  fiicts  amounted  to.  I  see  no  reason  to  recoil 
from  this  supposition  as  if  it  militated  against  their  full  inspira- 
tion in  respect  to  all  the  truth  God  designed  through  them  to  teach 
mankind.  The  exact  point  of  time  for  the  final  judgment  was 
certainly  never  embraced  in  the  system  of  truth  revealed  and  to 
be  taught  by  them.  If  they  had  impressions  or  expectations  on 
this  point,  they  formed  and  held  them  on  their  own  personal  re- 
sponsibility, not  upon  the  responsibility  of  the  inditing  Spirit.  I 
make  this  ?/ emphatic  ;  for  I  by  no  means  believe  that  they  really 
expected  (or  purposely  taught)  the  end  of  the  world  within  their 
generation.  There  are  other  senses  in  which  "  the  end  of  all 
things  is  at  hand."  Paul  certainly  looked  for  the  conversion  of 
the  masses  of  both  Jews  and  Gentiles  before  the  end  should  come 
(Rom.  11:  25,  26).  He  corrected  the  misapprehension  of  the 
Thessalonian  brethren,  assuring  them  he  never  meant  to  say  that 
Christ's  final  coming  was  then  very  near  (2  Thess.  2  :  1-3).  But 
this  theme  is  too  large  to  be  treated  exhaustively  here, 

9.  Grudge  not  one  against  another,  brethren,  lest  ye  be 
condemned :  behold,  the  judge  standeth  before  the  door. 

"Grudge  not,"  following  the  sense  of  the  original,  must  mean 
murmur  not;  find  not  fault,  one  with  another,  brethren.  Not 
merely  moderate  but  suppress  your  spirit  of  fault-finding,  lest  ye 
be  condemned  by  him  who  said:   "Judge   not,   that  ye  be  not 


352  JAMES. — CHAP.  V. 

judged"  (Matt.  7:  1).  A  Judii;e  greater  than  yourselves  stands 
at  the  door,  to  overhear  every  harsh  word  and  to  punish  every 
censorious,  sharp  judgment  ye  pass  against  one  another.  Take 
heed  that  ye  do  not  assume  to  wrest  from  him  and  wield  your- 
selves his  Supreme  prerogative  as  the  one  only  Judge  of  men. 
Take  heed  that  your  spirit  be  evermore  unselfish,  kind,  forbear- 
ing, forgiving, — even  as  becomes  men  themselves  in  the  flesh,  en- 
compassed with  manifold  infirmities — often  themselves  offending, 
and  thus  greatly  needing  continual  forbearance  and  mercy  from 
the  Great  Judge ! 

10.  Take,  my  brethren,  the  prophets,  who  have  spoken  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord,  for  an  example  of  suffering  affliction, 
and  of  patience. 

11.  Behold,  we  count  them  happy  which  endure.  Ye  have 
heard  of  the  patience  of  Job,  and  have  seen  the  end  of  the 
Lord  ;  that  the  Lord  is  very  p)itiful,  and  of  tender  mercy. 

Old  Testament  history  has  never  attempted  to  make  a  complete 
record  of  the  persecutions  endured  by  the  Lord's  prophets  from 
the  ungodly  men  to  whom  they  bore  the  fearful  words  of  the 
Lord.  Incidentally  a  few  such  cases  come  to  view;  e.  g.,  of  Mi- 
caiah  son  of  Imlah  put  in  prison,  fed  with  bread  and  water  of 
affliction  for  his  stern  fidelity  to  Jehovah  (2  Chron.  18  :  6,  7,  25, 
26);  of  Zechariah  son  of  Jehoiada  the  priest  whom  they  slew  at 
the  commandment  of  the  king  in  the  court  of  the  temple  (2 
Chron.  24 :  20-22) ;  and  not  least  Jeremiah,  put  in  the  stocks, 
immured  in  an  underground  prison  and  sunk  in  the  mire;  in 
frequent  peril  of  life ; — while  in  general  the  case  of  the  prophets 
drew  from  Stephen  tlie  strong  rebuke — "  Which  of  the  prophets 
have  not  your  fathers  persecuted  ?  and  they  have  slain  them  who 
showed  before  the  coming  of  the  Just  One"  (Acts  7:  52).  The 
unrecorded  cases  known  only  by  tradition  must  have  been  a  host. 
The  Jews  to  whom  Stephen  spake  and  those  also  to  whom  James 
wrote  must  have  heard  of  them.     Let  them  take  those  glorious 

heroes  of  faith  and  endurance  as  their  examples ! Behold,  we 

count  the  men  happy  who  have  endured  (so  the  Greek  reads). 
After  the  suffering  is  past  and  patience  has  "had  its  perfect 
work"  and  borne  its  ripened  fruits  and  brought  to  the  sufferer 
his  glorious  reward,  who  does  not  celebrate  the  triumph  and  extol 
the  virtues  of  the  glorified  martyrs  1 

Ye  have  heard  of  the  long  and  bitter  trial  of  Job  and  of  his 
patience  under  the  accumulated  ])urdens  of  pain  and  of  abuse; 
ye  have  seen  in  the  record  how  the  Lord  ])rought  liim  out  at  tlio 
end  and  made  the  last  years  of  his  long  life  radiant  with  light 
and  rich  in  peace  and  blessedness.  How  gloriously  did  the  Lord 
reward  his  latter  end! All  this — it  scarcely  need  be  said — as- 
sumes that  Job  was  a  veritable  historic  character — not  a  myth — 
not  a  poetic  fancy,  ])ut  a  real  man  of  human  flesh  and  Idood,  to 
be  classed  with  the  suffering  prophets  of  their  uatiou's  history — 
with  Micaiah,  Zedckiah,  Jeremiah. 


JAMES. — CHAP.  V.  353 

12.  But  above  all  things,  my  brethren,  swear  not,  neither 
by  heaven,  neither  by  the  earth,  neither  by  any  other  oath  : 
but  let  your  yea  be  yea ;  and  your  nay,  nay ;  lest  ye  fall  into 
condemnation. 

This  abbreviates  but  essentially  reiterates  the  teaching  of 
Christ  on  this  point — the  uncalled  for,  irreverent  oath.  The  fact 
that  the  solemn  oath  was  in  a  few  special  cases  required,  became, 
perhaps,  the  innocent  occasion  for  this  fearful  and  perilous  abuse. 
Men  whose  veracity  is  not  satisfactorily  established  by  their 
general,  v«^ell-known,  truthfulness,  seem  to  feel  that  they  must 
strengthen  the  confidence  of  men  in  their  word  by  the  fearful 
oath — but  never  with  any  better  result  than  to  shake  the  confi- 
dence they  would  fain  strengthen — often  destroy  it  utterly.  For 
the  object  they  seek,  no  folly  can  be  greater ;  in  view  of  its  moral 
results  upon  their  own  souls,  no  sin  is  more  hardening  and  de- 
praving ;  as  toward  God  no  ofiense  is  more  sure  of  swift  and  ter- 
rible retribution !  If  other  sins  are  folly,  this  much  more.  It  is 
pitiful  to  see  men  rush  madly  and  defiantly  upon  the  storm  of 
Jehovah's  fiercest  thunderbolts,  invoking  his  name  to  bolster  up 
their  falsehoods ;  challenging  him  to  take  note  of  their  sins  and 
wither  their  souls  under  his  eternal  frown  !  As  if  they  feared  lest 
somehow  their  sin  might  escape  the  notice  of  the  All-seeing  God ! 
As  if  it  would  be  a  calamity  not  to  secure  his  attention  to  their 
blasphemy  and  lies ! 

13.  Is  any  among  you  afflicted  ?  let  him  pray.  Is  any 
merry?  let  him  sing  psalms. 

Of  course  in  affliction,  let  men  pray.  The  impulse  is  natural 
— almost  universal.  It  is  also  appropriate — most  entirely  so.  In 
all  human  straitnesses,  God  only  is  our  refuge.  This  is  his  name 
of  old — "a  very  present  help  in  trouble."  0,  the  wealth  of  pre- 
cious testimony  which  has  been  accumulating  all  down  the  ages, 
from  the  experience  of  those  who  have  sought  the  Lord  in  their 
afiiiction,  and  never  in  vain  ! 

"  I'll  drop  my  burden  at  his  feet, 
And  bear  a  song  away." 

"Is  any  merry  "? But  this  word  "  merry  "  is  liable  to  mis- 
represent the  apostle.  The  word  he  used  means — not  hilarious, 
not  gleeful — full  of  fun  and  frolic  ;  but  means — of  a  happy  mind  ; 
joyful;  of  good  cheer,  having  an  exul)erance  of  animal  life. 
Let  such  pour  forth  their  joy  in  psalms  of  praise.  Why  not  ? 
Why  not  praise  God  for  such  health  and  such  a  fund  of  physical 
enjoyment?  Such  praise  is  a  purely  rational  joy ;  you  will  never 
have  cause  to  be  ashamed  of  it.  It  is  worthy  of  your  nobler  nat- 
ure, and  due  to  the  glorious  Giver  of  your  blessings,^  Thus  in 
every  variety  and  indeed  in  all  the  extremes  of  physical  condi- 
tion;— in  the  utmost  possibilities  of  pain  and  weakness,  and 
also  in  the  exuberance  of  joy  and  strength,  let  us  have  God  ever 


354  JAMES. — CHAP.  V. 

near;  let  the  outgoing  of  our  thought  and  emotion  be  unto  him 
— from  the  depth  of  our  pain,  in  prayer ;  from  the  fullness  of  our 
pleasure,  in  praise  and  song. 

14.  Is  any  sick  among  you?  let  him  call  for  the  elders  of 
the  church;  and  let  them  pray  over  him,  anointing  him  with 
oil  ill  the  name  of  the  Lord : 

15.  And  the  prayer  of  faith  shall  save  the  sick,  and  the 
Lord  shall  raise  him  up;  and  if  he  have  committed  sins, 
they  shall  be  forgiven  him. 

These  verses  open  a  subject  of  profound  interest. We  have, 

first,  the  preliminary  question — whether  the  case  contemplated 
here  is  one  of  special  sort,  relating  to  sickness  or  some  evil  sent 

in  special  judgment  for  special  sin. This  inquiry  is  suggested 

by  the  words—"  If  he  have  committed  sins,  they  shall  be  forgiven 
Ijiuij" — /,  g.^  if  his  sickness  has  come  upon  him  because  of  some 
sin  which  called  for  this  visitation  of  God  upon  him,  then,  in 
answer  to  the  prayer  of   faith,   he  shall   be  not  only  restored  to 

health  but  forgiven  of  his   sin. -The  history  of  the  apostolic 

age  shows  that  such  visitations  of  maladies  for  sin  did  occur. 
Paul  to  the  Corinthians  makes  several  allusions  which  imply 
this;  e.  g.,  referring  to  their  desecration  of  the  Lord's  supper,  he 
writes  (1  Cor.  11:  30):  "For  this  cause  many  are  weak  and  sickly 

among  you,  and  many  sleep"   (in  death). In  the  case  of  the 

member  guilty  of  incest  (1  Cor.  5  :  4,  5)  he  spake  of  "  delivering 
such  a  one  unto  Satan  for  the  destruction  of  the  flesh  that  the 

spirit  may  be  saved,"  etc. To  Timothy  he  wrote  (1  Tim.  1 :  20) 

of  Hymeneus  and  Alexander,  "  whom  I  have  delivered  unto  Satan 

that  they  may  learn  not  to  blaspheme." The  case  of  Elymas 

the  sorcerer  (Acts  13:  8-11)  is  fully  in  point. — -The  fact  there- 
fore of  such  inflictions  in  that  age  is  fully  established. 

But  the  doctrine  of  our  passage  need  not  be — should  not  be — • 
restricted  to  this  class  of  cases ;  for  the  apostle  purposely  era- 
braces  other  cases  as  well  as  this: — "//"  he  have  committed  sins, 
they  shall  be  forgiven  him" — the  prayer  of  faith  covering,  there- 
fore, by  the  supposition,  other  forms  of  sickness,  not  thus  oc- 
casioned. 

The  next  important  question  pertains  to  ''  the  prayer  of  faith'' 
Is  the  word  '\faiOi'  used  here  in  the  sense  of  a  general  confi- 
dence that  God  hears  prayer  whenever  the  conditions  of  accepta- 
ble prayer  are  met  and  whenever  it  pleases  him;  or  in  the 
special  sense  of  that  conscious  assurance  of  the  particular  bless- 
ing asked  which  God  sometimes  grants.  The  latter  will  be 
anTdogous  to  the  fsiith  that  was  requisite  for  miracles,  as  we  learn 
from  Mark  11  :  22,  23;  "Whosoever  shall  say  to  this  mountain, 
J>e  thou  removed,  and  be  thou  cast  into  the  sea;  and  shall  not 
doubt  ill  his  heart,  but  shall  believe  that  those  things  which  he 
saith  shall  come  to  pass,  he  shall  have  whatsoever  he  saith." 
Manifestly  men  wrought  miracles  in  answer  to   no  other  prayer 


JAMES. — CHAP.  V.  355 

and  upon  the  basis  of  no  other  faith  but  this.  God  gave  them 
this   special   assurance,    and    never   the    miracle-working  power 

without  this  antecedent  faith  for  it. It  is  a  thing  of  Christian 

experience  that,  in  cases  which  involve  no  miracle,  God  some- 
times gives  a  similar  assurance — a  very  special  faith  that  the 
blessing  sought  will  be  granted.  It  seems  to  me  strongly  proba- 
ble, if  not  even  certain,  that  this  special  assurance  is  here  in- 
tended by  the  words — "  the  2)rayei'  of  faith."     They  are  specially 

suggestive  of  this  idea. Moreover,  the  blessing  itself  belongs 

to  a  class  as  to  which  no  mortal  can  know  beforehand  that  God 
will  grant  it  save  by  means  of  a  special  assurance  brought  to  his 
consciousness  by  the  Divine  Spirit.  It  were  simple  folly  to  sup- 
pose that  God  leaves  it  to  Christian  people  to  determine  of  their 
own  will  what  sicknesses  he  shall  heal  in  answer  to  prayer. 
That  is  to  say — God  only  can  know  whether  it  be  wise  for  him  to 
hear  prayer  for  recovery  from  sickness.  It  may  be,  and  again  it 
may  not  be.  Whenever  it  is,  he  may  grant  this  foregoing  assur- 
ance of  the  blessing.  Then  "  the  prayer  of  faith  shall  save  the 
sick." 

It  remains  to  inquire  whether  restorations  from  sickness  in 
answer  to  the  prayer  of  faith  are  in  our  day  (in  the  proper  sense 
of  the  word)  miraculous ;  and  if  not,  then  on  what  principles 
they  are  to  be  accounted  for.  Where  comes  in  the  divine  hand 
in  answer  to  prayer,  with  no  violation  of  natural  law? 

A  real  miracle  supposes  divine  power  exerted  otherwise  than 
according  to  natural  law.  We  may  speak  of  it  as  superseding, 
deviating  from,  or  overruling  natural  law,  as  (e.  g.)  in  raising 
the  dead  to  life. 

The  following  points,  bearing  on  our  present  question,  may  be 
considered  as  reliably  estaljlished. 

1.  Christ  gave  to  his  apostles  the  miraculous  power  of  healing 
the  sick  in  answer  to  the  prayer  of  faith  and  in  his  own  name. 
See  the  original  grant  (Matt.  10:  1) — repeated  after  his  resur- 
rection (Mark  16:  17,  18);  illustrated  in  history  (Acts  5:  15,  16 
and  8 :  7,  13  and  9 :   17,  18  and  28  :  8,  9,  etc.) 

2.  Plainly  the  apostles  were  able  to  confer  on  others  this 
miracle-working  power,  as  one  form  of  the  "  powers  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  See  the  case  of  Stephen  (Acts  6 :  5-8),  and  the  general 
ftict(l  Cor.  12:  9). 

3.  There  is  very  strong  ground  for  the  opinion  that  none  of 
these  miraculous  powers  are  in  the  church  at  the  present  day  ; 
and  indeed,  that  none  have  been  since  the  age  of  the  apostles ; 
i.  e.,  since  the  New  Testament  inspired  records  were  completed. 

Put  in  form   as  brief   as   possible,  the  arguments  for  this 

opinion  which  I  regard  as  valid  are  these : 

(1.)  The  absence  of  special  reason  for  miraculous  power,  such 
as  existed  in  the  apostolic  age,  viz.,  to  authenticate  a  revelation 
from  God.  This  while  it  continued  was  a  worthy  end  or  reason 
for  miracles. 

(2.)  The  power  of  the  principle  or  law  which  we  may  call — the 


356  JAMES. — CHAP.  V. 

conservation  of  miraculons  force,  it  being  very  obviously  the 
divine  policy  and  the  doctrine  of  reason  as  well,  never  to  use 
miracle  except  where  a  worthy  exigency  demands  it.  If  used 
beyond  this  limitation,  miracles  would  become  self-destructive, 
i.  e.,  would  defeat  their  own  end.  They  would  cease  to  have  the 
force  of  miracles. 

(3.)  Ever  since  the  death  of  those  who  received  this  gift  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  from  the  hands  of  the  apostles,  there  has  been  a 
markotl  absence  of  conclusive  testimony  to  the  fact  of  real  mira- 
cle. Pretensions  to  miraculous  power  have  never  ceased ;  satis- 
factory evidence  has. 

Passing  that  point,  it  remains  to  say  that  God  may  yet  give  his 
people  the  prayer  of  faith  for  healing  the  sick,  and  may  heal  in 
answer  to  such  prayer  in  modes  of  operation  tvhich  involve  no 
real  miracle.  So  that,  with  not  the  least  pretension  to  miraculous 
power,  and  with  not  the  least  expectation  of  it,  prayer  for  the 
healing  of  the  sick  may  still  be  perfectly  legitimate;  and 
cures  that  may  seem  to  be  very  extraordinary  may  really  be 
wrought. 

If  the  inquiry  be  raised— How  is  this  result  achieved?  Under 
what  laws  is  this  efficiency  exerted  ? — I  should  answer — All  may 
be  comprised  under  these  three  : 

1.  The  spiritual  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  truth  upon 
the  human  mind;  in  this  case,  the  mind  of  the  patient. 

2.  The  power  of  the  mind  over  the  body. 

The  former  may  manifest  itself  in  producing  a  calm,  quiet 
state  of  the  nervous  system  ;  or  an  exaltation  of  mind,  and '  a 
great  augmentation  of  mind-power. 

The  latter — the  action  of  mind  upon  body — comes  under  a 
universal  law,  a  law  in  many  points  mysterious,  yet  none  the 
less  a  real  law.  In  the  human  constitution,  mind  docs  act  upon 
body.  Imagination,  fear,  hope,  simple  force  of  will — all  have  an 
immense  range  of  power  for  evil  or  for  good,  mightily  affecting 
the  physical  condition  of  the  body.  Thus  God  may  heal  the  sick 
in  answer  to  prayer  by  acting  primarily  upon  mind ;  secondarily, 
through  the  mind  upon  the  body,  and  all  this,  with  no  deviation 
from  established  law;  ?*.  e.,  with  no  miracle. 

3.  No  one  can  say  how  much,  without  the  least  miraculous 
agency,  God  may  act  upon  tlie  patient  through  medical  remedies; 
how  much  he  may  lead  the  thought  and  judgment  which  detects 
the  real  disease  and  then  prescribes  treatment.  Facts  of  this 
sort  may  hinge  upon  prayer  and  yet  involve  no  miracle. 

It  scarcely  need  be  said  that  there  must  be  limitations  to  the 
power  of  even  the  prayer  of  faith  to  save  the  sick.  It  were 
folly  to  assume  that  this  can  apply  and  avail  in  all  possible  cases, 
or  to  any  one  patient  forever,  with  never  a  failure;  for  this,  if 
true  and  feasible,  might  forever  contravene  the  law  of  universal 
mortality,  and  some  of  our  dear  friends  we  should  never  let  die. 

Moreover,  by  the  very  nature  of   the  law   under  which  this 

healing  power  acts,  it  can  never  apply  to  the  raising  of  the  dead 


JAMES. — CHAP.  V.  357 

to  life,  for  in  this  case  by  the  supposition,  mind  is  gone ;  all  mind- 
force  upon  body  has  ceased. 

As  to  "  anointing  with  oil  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,"  the  custom 
in  Israel  came  down  from  the  ceremonies  used  in  the  ordination 
of  priests  and  the  inauguration  of  kings — in  each  class  of  cases, 
symbolic  of  the  unction  of  the  Spirit  of  God  which  gave  them 
their  special  endowment  for  their  work.  In  the  case  of  the  sick 
it  was  a  recognition,  in  symbol,  of  the  grace  given  by  the  Spirit 
— grace  which  in  that  age  may  have  been  miraculous,  or  may 
not. 

16.  Confess  your  faults  one  to  another,  and  pray  one  for 
another,  that  ye  may  be  healed.  The  effectual  fervent 
prayer  of  a  righteous  man  availeth  much. 

17.  Elias  was  a  man  subject  to  like  passions  as  we  are, 
and  he  prayed  earnestly  that  it  might  not  rain:  and  it 
rained  not  on  the  earth  by  the  space  of  three  years  and  six 
months. 

18.  And  he  prayed  again,  and  the  heaven  gave  rain,  and 
the  earth  brought  forth  her  fruit. 

In  this  particular  case,  the  mutual  confession  of  faults  and  the 
mutual  prayer  for  healing  seem  to  have  been  closely  connected 
with  those  cases  of  special  sickness  peculiar  to  that  age,  brought 
to  view  in  the  verse  preceding — "  If  he  have  committed  sins," 
etc.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  earlier  manuscripts  give,  instead 
of  the  Greek  word  for  faults,  the  very  word  for  sins  (amartias), 
which  we  have  in  v.  15,  making  it  yet  more  certain  that  this 
clause  refers  to  that : — "  If  he  have  committed  sins  :  " — "  Confess 
your  sins  one  to  another." 

The  words — "  The  effectual  fervent  prayer  of  a  righteous  man 
availeth  much  "  were  no  doubt  suggested  by  the  cures  often  wrought 
in  answer  to  the  prayer  of  faith.  Yet  we  are  by  no  means 
bound  to  restrict  to  that  class  of  facts  the  great  truth  they  affirm. 
The  apostle  himself  does  not  restrict  it,  for  he  appeals  to  the 
prayer  of  Elijah  for  illustration  and  proof — a  case  of  prayer,  not 

ibr  healing  in  disease,  but  for  drought  and  for  rain. Let  it  be 

noted  that  the  two  words — "effectual"  and  "fervent" — are  here 
combined  to  give  the  sense  of  but  one  word  in  the  original 
Greek,  viz.,  the  participle  (energoumene) — a  word  from  which 
we  derive  our  word  "  energy.''  It  legitimately  signifies  an  en-- 
ergetic  prayer — a  prayer  that  moves  the  soul,  that  has  an  intense 
significance,  that  comes  of  strong  and  earnest  feeling  and  means 

all  it  says. It  is  scarcely  supposable  that  the  translators  of 

our  version  meant  by  "  effectual"  precisely  what  we  should  mean 
now,  since  it  is  a  weak  tautology  to  say  that  an  effectual  prayer 
is  very  effective.  I  judge  they  intended  to  use  it  as  an  adverb  to 
qualify  the  adjective  "fervent" — an  intensely  fervent  prayer. 
16 


o58  JAMES. — CHAP.  V. 

Such  a  prayer,  they  would  say,   has  a  mighty  power;   is 

strong  (iskuei)  mighty;  avails  much. 

It  was  pertinent  to  say  here  that  Elijah  was  nothing  more  than 
a  man — a  man  of  human  frailties  like  ourselves. 

But  for  this  suggestion  we  might  he  ready  to  suppose  that  one 
so  mighty  in  prayer  moved  in  a  plane  of  being  higher  than  mor- 
tal. We  may  dismiss  that  notion  ;  for  Elijah  was  certainly  a  man 
of  moods,  of  variable  temperament,  much  like  other  men;  capable 
one  day  of  most  sublime  exaltation  of  soul ;  and  again  on  another 
day,  of  sad,  almost  humiliating  depression  and  discouragement. 
In  his  case  the  reaction  of  overtasked  nerve-power,  and  an  over- 
worked body,  was  terrible.  Did  he  not  apparently  lose  sight  of 
the  mighty  arm  of  God  when  he  sank  down  under  that  juniper 

tree  and  begged  that  he  might  die  ? It  was  in  consideration  of 

the  weakness  of  his  mortal  flesh  that  God  dealt  with  him  so  ten- 
derly— much  as  Jesus  apologized  for  his  weary  disciples  ;  "  The 
spirit  indeed  is  willing,  but  the  flesh  is  weak"  (Matt.  26  :  41). 

But  we  return  to  his  prayer.  The  history  is  silent  as  to  his 
praying  earnestly  that  it  might  7iot  rain.  Shall  we  assume  that 
this  fiict  came  down  by  tradition ;  or  was  it  an  inference  from 
the  words  of  the  record  (1  Kings  17:  1)  as  spoken  by  Elijah  to 
Ahab :  "As  the  Lord  God  of  Israel  liveth  before  whom  I  stand, 
there  shall  not  be  dew  nor  rain  these  years  but  according  to  my 
word"  ?  This  does  not  say  that  the  withholding  of  rain  was  any 
result  of   his  word;  but  only  that  no  dew  or  rain  should  come 

save  by  and  through  his  word. Remarkably  the  record  (in  1 

Kings  18  :  44-46)  of  what  Ehjah  said  and  did  in  connection  with 
the  sending  of  that  rain  does  not  speak  in  definite  words  o^ prayer. 
Yet  it  fully  enough  implies  prayer.  He  told  Ahab  there  "  was  a 
sound  of  abundance  of  rain."  He  went  up  to  the  top  of  Carmel; 
"  cast  himself  down  upon  the  earth  and  put  his  face  between  his 
knees."  This  was  the  attitude  of  most  humble,  imploring  prayer. 
Seven  times  in  succession  ho  sent  his  servant  to  the  summit  peak 
of  Carmel  to  look  out  upon  the  great  western  waters  to  see  if 
tokens  of  rain  were  visible.  All  this  time  he  was  in  the  audience 
chamber  of  the  Almighty,  imploring  rain.  At  last  the  report 
came  back — a  little  cloud  as  a  man's  hand  rising  as  an  exhala- 
tion from  those  Mediterranean  waters.  This  was  enough.  His 
prayer  was  answered ;  tlie  rain  was  surely  coming !  Let  Ahab 
mount  his  chariot  and  strike  for  liis  palace-home,  that  the  great 
rain  stay  him  not !     God  had  heard  the  voice  of  a  mortal  man, 

and  the  long  and  fearful  drought  was  at  an  end ! So  when  the 

Lord  pleases,  he  suifers  his  children  to  talk  and  plead  vyith  him 
in  mighty  wrestlings,  till  deliverance  comes.  Tiie  earnest,  ener- 
getic prayer  has  power  with  God.  We  may  boar  this  living  truth 
in  our  heart  and  use  it  all  the  days  of  our  mortal  life. 

19.  Brethren,  if  any  of  you  do  err  from  the  truth,  and 
one  convert  him ; 

20.  Let  liim  know,  that  he  which  converteth  the  sinnei* 


JAMES. — CHAP.    V.  359 

from  the  error  of  his  way  shall  save  a  soul  from  death,  and 
shall  hide  a  multitude  of  sins. 

The  connection  of  thought  between  these  verses  and  the  pre- 
ceding is  tacit  and  implied — not  expressed — thus :  It  may  hap- 
pen that  some  of  your  Christian  brethren  shall  lapse  into  lamenta- 
ble sin,  and  so  bring  sore  judgments  of  sickness  upon  the  body,  and 
great  spiritual  darkness  upon  the  soul  (v.  14-16).  Then,  the  warm 
pity,  the  uplifting  sympathy,  and  the  fervent  prayer  of  their 
brethren  may  avail  to  save  these  erring  men.  Put  a  special  case 
before  your  mind  and  so  measure  the  precious  rewards  of  such 
Christian  labor  for  the  fallen,  "  Brethren,  if  any  of  you  do  err 
from  the  truth  and  one  convert  him  " — bring  him  back  to  truth,  to 
duty,  and  to  Christ — "let  him  know  for  his  encouragement  and 
joy,"  that  he  who  so  converts  a  sinner  shall  save  his  soul  from 
death  and  hide  a  multitude  of  sins."  Such  is  the  line  of  thought. 
A  professed  Christian  brother  lapsed  into  sin  is  the  case  sup- 
posed. The  fall  may  be  like  that  of  Peter;  indeed,  the  terms 
used  suggest  his  case.  Yet  it  should  be  noted  that  the  phrases 
— "  err  from  the  truth,"  and  "the  error  of  his  way,"  manifestly 
refer  to  the  same  thing,  and  therefore  suggest  that  in  the  apostle's 
thought,  truth  and  Christian  life  stand  in  very  intimate — not  to 
say  almost  identical  relations.  Erring  from  truth  brings  on 
erring  from  the  Christian  way — course  of  life.  Truth  is  evermore 
"  in  order  to  goodness";  as  also  error  is  in  order  to  badness,  sin. 
When  a  man's  Christian  faith  was  overthrown,  his  Christian  life 
too  went  down.  Gospel  truth  as  held  in  those  days  by  apostles 
and  their  churches  wrought  unto  holy  living,  always,  by  its  legiti- 
mate influence,  by  a  moral  necessity.  Erring  from  the  truth  let 
men  drop  at  once  into  not  only  darkness  but  sin — into  the  very 
snare  of  Satan. 

The  improved  text  reads — not  "save  a  soul"  (indefinite),  but 
"save  his  soul" — the  soul  of  the  once  erring  but  now  converted 
brother. 

The  "  hiding  of  a  multitude  of  sins  looks  toward  that  wonder- 
ful redemption  and  forgiveness  of  sins  which  the  Scriptures  so 
often  represent  as  "the  blotting  out  of  all  their  iniquities";  caus- 
ing them  to  "be  remembered  no  more";  "casting  all  their  sins 
into  the  depths  of  the  sea."  Will  it  not  be  an  everlasting  joy  in 
the  bosom  of  every  one  who  "saves  a  soul  from  death"  that 
thereby  a  multitude  of  sins  are  sunk  forever  out  of  view — so  for- 
given as  to  be  remembered  no  more?  The  apostle  holds  this  glo- 
rious result  before  our  mind  that  we  may  take  in  its  inspiring 
power  and  give  ourselves  to  all  labor  and  prayer  to  save  men's 
souls  from  death. 

Thus  ends  this  apostolic  letter.  Every  paragraph  of  it  im- 
presses us  that  the  gospel  as  held  by  James  was  a  power  that 
wrought  unto  righteousness.  With  giant  arm  he  battled  against 
sin ;  with  mighty  logic  he  pled  for  purity  of  life  and  for  such  right- 
eousness as  is  born  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesns.     With  no  waste 


360  JAMES. — CHAP.  V 

words ;  with  never  a  weak  expression ;  saying  with  prodigious 
force  the  things  his  earnest  soul  moved  him  to  say  he  has  lett  us 
a  brief  letter  which  the  Christian  world  could  ill  afford  to  spare; 
which  no  fair,  open,  impressible  mind  can  read  without  being 
toned  up  thereby  to  a  purer  and  more  earnest  life  tor  bod  and 
righteousness. 


THE   FIRST  EPISTLE  OF  PETER. 


GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

The  subjects  that  naturally  introduce  us  to  the  intelligent 
reading  and  study  of  these  epistles  are, 
I.  The  Writer. 
II.   The  Genuineness  of  the  second  epistle, 

III.  The  date  and  the  place  where  ivritten. 

IV.  Tlie  churches  addressed;  their  locality,  and  general 
character ; 

V.  The  special  occasion  for  these  epistles,  and  their  ob- 
ject. 

I.  The  AVriter. 

The  gospel  histories — those  of  the  four  evangelists  and 
the  Acts — make  us  well  acquainted  with  the  apostle,  Simon 
Peter.  A  fisherman  of  Galilee ;  with  his  brother  Andrew 
a  hearer  and  apparently  a  disciple  of  John  the  Baptist — he 
early  became  acquainted  with  Jesus,  and  from  the  first, 
took  the  position  of  a  leader  among  the  twelve  disciples. 
Naturally  impulsive,  ardent,  impetuous  almost  to  the  point 
of  rashness — a  born  leader  of  men — he  had  in  him  the  ele- 
ments of  power,  but,  as  often  happens  with  such  native 
elements,  they  greatly  needed  culture  and  training.  Here 
therefore  was  educating  work  for  the  kind  and  faithful  hand 
of  the  Master.  His  ways  of  discipline  with  this  strong  but 
wayward  man  give  us  many  a  sweet  lesson  in  the  patience 
and  wisdom  of  the  Great  Teacher,  and  make  us  hopeful 
that  under  equally  wise  and  kind  discipline,  other  not  less 
wayward  and  rough  natures  may  be  molded  into  order, 

beauty,  and  strength. Peter's  great  sin  in   denying  his 

master  has  made  his  name  and  history  memorable.  His 
bitter  repentance  ;  his  prompt  return  to  love  and  duty  ;  the 
earnest  devotion  of  his  soul  thenceforward  to  fearless  testi- 
mony for  Christ,  fill  out  that  life-history  with  the  noble 
record  of  a  true  penitent. 

(361) 


362  GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 

The  successive  steps  of  his  restoration  to  penitence  and 
the  new  life  are  too  vital  in  his  history  and  too  full  of  inter- 
est and  instruction  to  be  lightly  passed  over. 

Of  the  four  evangelists,  Luke  only  records  that  after 
Peter's  last  denial,  and  just  at  the  point  when  "  the  cock 
crew,"  the  Lord  turned  and  looked  ujwn  Peter ;  and  there- 
upon, Peter  remembered  his  words  of  forewarning  and  im- 
mediately "  went  out  and  wept  bitterly."  (Luke  22:  60-62.) 
Rebuke  and  sorrow,  pity  and  love,  were  put  into  that  one 
look,  we  must  suppose,  more  impressively  than  any  Avords 
could  express  them.  So  of  the  effect  on  Peter  ;  not  a  word 
from  his  lips  is  on  record  ;  but  there  were  tears,  bitter  tears. 
'We  are  left  to  imagine  what  thoughts  and  emotions  of 
shame,  grief,  humiliation,  astonishment  at  himself,  crowded 

fast  upon  his  stricken  heart. ^Jesus  did  not  forget  Peter. 

INIark  notes  the  circumstance  that  the  angel  at  the  door  of 
the  sepulcher  said  to  the  women — "  Go  your  way,  tell  his 
disciples  and  Peter  that  he  goeth  into  Galilee"  (Mark  16  :  7) ; 
and  repeatedly  we  are  told  that  Jesus  made  a  special  mani- 
festation of  himself  to  Peter.  Both  Luke  and  Paul  seem  to 
imply  that  (perhaps  with  the  exception  of  his  appearance  to 
Mary  and  the  women)  this,  to  Peter,  was  the  very  first. 
The  two  brethren  returning  from  Emmaus,  found  the  disci- 
ples gathered  together,  saying,  *'  The  Lord  is  risen  indeed, 
ami  hath  appeared  unto  Simon"  (Luke  24:  34).  So  Paul 
(1  Cor.  15  :  5) — *'  He  was  seen  of  Cephas  (Peter)  ;  then  of 
the  twelve."  The  spoken  words  of  that  interview  are  not 
on  record.  The  fact  of  it  witnesses  that  the  old  love  and 
confidence  were  returning ;  that  Jesus  had  not  cast  off  his 
penitent  child  ;  and  that  Peter  was  not  left  to  despair  of  be- 
ing  made   again  a  pardoned   and  trusted  son. Li  the 

scenes  at  the  sea  of  Galilee  which  John  only  has  narrated, 
it  would  seem  that  Jesus  purposely  administered  a  gentle  re- 
buke to  Peter  for  assuming  to  be  more  true  and  devoted  to 
his  Lord  than  any  of  his  brethren,  three  times  pressing  the 
question — "  Lovest  thou  me  more  than  these  "other  disci- 
ples do?  Jesus  knew  the  weak  point  in  the  cliaracter  of 
Peter,  and  therefore  gave  him  this  gentle  reminder.  There- 
after we  meet  with  nothing  that  even  suggests  the  least  lack 
of  mutual  confidence  l)etween  Peter  and  his  Lord.  Filled 
witli  the  Holy  Ghost  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  he  preached 
Cin-ist  with  a  boldness  tliat  would  not  quail  before  danger; 
stood  up  courageously  before  the  very  sanhedrim  whose 
presence  had  so  a2)pallcd  him  when  he  first  saw  his  Master 


GENERAL  INTEODUCTION.  363 

in    their   hands. Onward   Ave    see   him  foremost  of  the 

apostles  in  bearing  the  gospel  to  Samuria,  and  first  to  break 
through  the  great  caste-barrier  between  Jews  and  Gentiles, 
and  practically  learn  that  momentous  doctrine — ''Godnore- 
speder  of  'persons ;  but  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth  God 
and  worketh  righteousness  is  accepted  of  him."  This  might 
seem  to  have  prepared  Peter  to  become  the  first  and  great 
apostle  to  the  Gentiles.  But  the  Lord  had  another  instru- 
ment in  preparation,  in  the  person  of  Saul  the  persecutor,  who 
soon  after  came  to  the  front  and  bore  the  standard  of  the  cross 
abroad  over  the  Gentile  world  with  unsurpassed  energy  and 
success.  After  the  great  Council  at  Jerusalem  (A.  1).  50), 
(Acts  15),  the  thread  of  New  Testament  history  follows 
the  life  and  labors  of  Paul,  and  we  read  little  of  Peter.  No 
historian,  such  as  Luke  was  to  Paul,  accompanied  Peter, 
aiding  in  his  work  and  then  recording  under  inspiration  his 
labors  and  their  results.  The  absence  of  such  history  in 
our  New  Testament  by  no  means  proves  that  Peter  was  idle 
or  that  his  labors  were  of  small  account.  Suffice  it  that  a 
wisdom  more  than  human  determined  how  much  and  what 
history  of  the  great  apostolic  labors  of  the  age  should  go  into 
the  inspired  canon. 

Peter's  first  epistle  came  early  into  general  use  among  the 
churches.  Its  genuineness  was  never  questioned.  Origen 
wrote: — "  Peter  has  left  one  epistle  acknowledged  to  be  his." 
Eusebius  says  (Hist.  Eccl.  iii :  3)  :  *'  One  epistle  of  Peter 
called  the  first  is  universally  received."  Ireuseus  has  this 
(Adv.  Her.  iv :  9):  Peter  says  in  his  epistle,  "In  whom, 
though  now  ye  see  him  not,  yet  believing,  ye  rejoice,"  etc. 
(1  Pet.  1:  8).  Tertullian  writes — "Peter  says  to  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Pontus"  etc.  (quoting  1  Peter  2:  20).  These  cases 
will  suffice  to  show  how  the  early  fathers  spake  of  Peter's 
first  epistle  and  certified  to  its  universal  reception  in  the  sec- 
ond and  third  centuries.  Quotations  from  this  epistle,  in- 
dorsing it  as  accepted  scripture,  appear  in  the  earliest  and 
most  reliable  Christian  fathers;  e.  g.,  Clement  of  Kome 
(A.  D.  90-100);  Pastor  Hermas  (early  in  the  second  cen- 
tury) ;  Poly  carp  (one  of  John's  disciples)  ;  Papias  (of  the 
second  century)  ;  Irenseus  (A.  D.  178-202)  ;  Clement  of 
Alexandria  (A.  D.  187-220);  Tertullian  (A.  D.  200-220); 
Origen  (died  A.  D.  254)  ;  Cyprian  (Bp.  A.  D.  248-256)  ; 
Eusebius  (died  A.  D.  340)  ;  Athanasius  (Bp.  A.  D.  326- 
373),  and  Jerome  (flourished  A.  D.  350-420). 


364  GENERAL    INTEODUCTION. 

Internal  testimony  to  its  genuineness  is  all  that  need  be 
desired. 

II.  Sj^ecial  notice  should  be  taken  of  the  fact  that  the 
genuineness  of  the  second  epistle  has  been  called  in  question. 
^Some  modern  critics,  chiefly  German,  have  rejected  it  from 
the  canon.  Summarily  the  grounds  assigned  for  this  have 
been  these :  (1.)  Doubts  as  to  its  genuineness  reported  to  us 
by  some  of  the  early  Christian  fathers ;  (2.)  Differences  of 
style  as  compared  with  the  first  epistle.  The  fact  of  such 
difference  is  noticed  by  some  of  the  early  fathers,  and  has 
weight  with  those  modern  critics  who  discredit  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  epistle. 

We  turn  to  the  testimony  of  the  fathers. 

Origen,  apparently  the  earliest  w^itness,  whose  references 
are  beyond  dispute,  says  (in  Eusebius  vi:  25):  *' Peter  has 
left  one  acknowledged  epistle,  and  perhaps  a  second;  for  this 
is  contested."  Yet  he  speaks  elsewhere  of  tivo  epistles  of 
Peter  (Homily  on  Joshua),  and  cites  the  second  epistle  in  his 
Homily  on  Leviticus.  He  remarks  that  "  the  Scripture  says 
in  a  certain  place :"  ''The  dumb  ass,  replying  with  a  human 
voice,  forbad  the  madness  of  the  prophet"  (Balaam) — re- 
ferring to  2  Pet.  2 :  16.     It  is  therefore  plain  that  Origen 

himself  accredited  2  Peter  as  genuine  "  Scripture." It  is 

probable  (not  absolutely  certain)  that  Clement  of  Rome  re- 
fers to  2  Pet.  2:  6-9,  and  also  Irenajus  to  2  Pet.  3:  8. 
These  fathers  were  earlier  than  Origen,  but  their  references 

to  the  epistle  are  questioned. Eusebius  calls  James  the 

first  of  seven  catholic  ej)istles.  In  this  number  seven,  2 
Peter  must  have  been  included.  Yet  he  remarks  that  "the 
epistle  called  the  Second  of  Peter,  as  w^e  have  been  informed, 
has  not  been  received  as  a  part  of  the  New  Testament. 
Nevertheless,  appearing  to  many  to  be  useful,  it  has  been 
carefully  studied  with  the  other  Scriptures."     (Hist.  Eccl. 

iii:  3.) Didymus  of  Alexandria  and  his    pupil  Jerome 

refiir  to  doubts  entertained  by  some,  the  former  saying :  '  *  It 
should  not  be  concealed  that  this  epistle  was  considered  spu- 
rious, and  that  although  published,  it  was  not  in  the  canon." 
Jerome  observes  that  "Peter  wrote  two  epistles  called  cath- 
olic (i.  e.,  general),  the  second  of  which  had  been  denied  by 
many  to  be  his  because  of  the  difference  of  style."  With 
other  early  fathers,  he  ascril)ed  this  difierence  of  style  to  the 
circumstance  that  Peter  employed  different  interpreters  to 
translate  his  epistles  into  Greek.  It  was  assumed  that  Peter 
had  not  sufficient  knowledge  of  Greek  to  write  it  without 


GENERAL   INTRODUCTION.  365 

the  aid  of  an  interpreter  to  translate  for  him.  Thus  these 
differences  of  style  were  accounted  for  with  no  disparage- 
ment to  the  equal  authorship  of  Peter  to  both. Before 

the  close  of  the  fourth  century,  these  doubts  had  subsided, 
and  this  epistle  was  accredited  by  Athanasius,  Cyril,  Epipha- 
nius,  Jerome,  and  Augustine. 

III.  The  following  points  should  be  specially  considered : 

1.  This  epistle,  equally  with  the  first,  bears  the  name  of 
the  apostle  Peter  (1:1)  and  definitely  speaks  of  itself  as 
"  the  second:"  "This  second  epistle  I  now  write  unto  you" 
(3  :  1).  The  waiter  therefore  certainly  intended  to  have  this 
epistle  pass  as  WTitten  by  Peter.  The  supposition  of  a  pur- 
posed fraud  is  very  improbable ;  that,  being  a  fraud,  it 
should  ever  have  gained  credit  as  written  by  Peter,  is  yet 
more  so. 

2.  The  differences  of  style  between  the  first  and  this  pre- 
sent no  serious  obstacle  to  the  supposition  of  its  having  been 
written  by  the  same  Peter.  The  Christian  fathers  (as  above) 
may  have  accounted  truly  for  these  differences.  On  the 
other  hand,  strong  resemblances  appear,  of  such  sort  as 
should  offset  and  counterbalance  the  differences.  Prof. 
Stowe  (Books  of  the  Bible,  p.  407)  says  :  *'  The  internal  evi- 
dence from  the  peculiar  use  of  single  words  in  the  two  epis- 
tles, is  thoroughly  convincing.  There  are  in  both  the  same 
striking  peculiarities  of  language,  occurring  nowhere  else  or 
but  seldom  in  all  the  New  Testament.  The  word  (apothesis) 
is  found  in  1  Pet.  3:  21  and  2  Pet.  1 :  14  in  the  same  sense, 
but  nowhere  else  in  the  New  Testament.  The  word  (arete) 
occurs  in  1  Pet.  2 :  9  and  2  Pet.  1 :  3,  5,  and  but  once  be- 
sides in  all  the  New  Testament.  The  word  (aspilos)  is  in 
1  Pet.  1 :  19  and  in  2  Pet.  3 :  14,  and  only  twice  besides 
in  the  New  Testament.  Again,  the  word  (anastrophe) 
occurs  six  times  in  1  Peter,  twice  in  2  Peter,  and  only  once 
besides  in  each  of  the  following :  James,  1  Timothy,  Ephe- 
sians,  and  Galatians.  In  ordinary  cases  these  facts  alone 
would  be  deemed  sufficient  to  establish  identity  of  author- 
ship." 

3.  The  early  doubts  of  its  genuineness  may  have  been  due 
to  the  circumstance  that  it  was  addressed  to  no  church  or 
well-defined  body  of  Christian  people,  and  therefore  was  not 
left  in  any  one's  special  care.  Naturally  an  epistle  addressed 
to  a  particular  church  (e.  g.,  Corinth  or  Philippi)  fell  at 
once  into  its  special  care ;  was  indorsed  by  that  church,  and 
from  that  center  went  abroad  to  other  churches.     But  an 


366  GENERAL   INTRODUCTION. 

epistle  addressed  "to  them  who  have  obtained  like  precious 
faith  with  us,"  belonged  by  its  address  to  all  Christians  in 
general  and  to  none  in  particular.  This  may  account  for 
its  tardy  reception  among  the  great  body  of  Christians  in 
that  age. 

4.  Under  these  circumstances  the  early  doubt  and  hesita- 
tion as  to  this  epistle  should  be  taken  as  gratifying  evidence 
of  very  scrupulous  care  rather  than  as  damaging  evidence 
against  its  veritable  genuineness. 

IV.  Their  date^  and  the  place  where  each  was  WTitten. 

Internal  marks  show  that  the  first  epistle  was  written  to 
Christians  under  persecution  (1:  6,  7,  and  4:  12-19,  and 
5:  9,  10).  There  seems  no  reason  to  question  the  current 
opinion  that  this  was  the  persecution  brought  upon  the 
churches  by  Nero  (A.  D.  64-68).  Hence  critics  have 
usually  assigned  the  date  of  the  first  epistle  about  A.  D.  64. 

The  second  epistle  was  written  when  Peter  supposed  his 
own  martyrdom  to  be  near  (1 :  13,  14).  He  suffered  prob- 
ably about  A.  D.  67,  and  this  epistle  is  therefore  dated 
about  66.  Precise  historic  accuracy  as  to  date  should  not 
be  expected. 

As  to  the  place  whence  the  first  epistle  was  written,  the 
question  turns  on  1  Pet.  5:  13:  ''The  church  that  is  at 
Babylon,  elected  together  with  you,  saluteth  you."  The 
diversity  of  opinion  is  over  the  sense  of  the  name  "Baby- 
lon," whether  symbolic,  as  it  is  supposed  to  be  in  prophecy, 
or  historic,  for  the  great  city  of  the  Chaldeans.  The  latter 
is  doubtless  the  correct  view — the  salutations  of  a  letter 
being  no  place  for  the  symbolic  as  against  the  historic  sense. 
It  is  simply  incredible  that  Peter  should  have  used  the  name 
Babylon  for  the  purpose  here  indicated,  in  any  other  sense 
than  the  historic.  It  should  also  be  considered  that  the 
provinces  specified  in  1  Pet.  1 :  1,  "  Pontus,  Galatia,"  etc., 
had  obviously  been  the  field  of  Peter's  missionary  labors, 
which  fact  of  itself  greatly  enhances  the  probability  that  he 
had  visited  Babylon,  where  it  is  well  known  there  was  a 
large  Jewish  population. 

In  studying  the  history  of  Peter's  missionary  labors,  the 
first  and  most  vital  step  is  to  estimate  the  credibility  of  his 
ancient  historians.  Unfortunately  for  the  cause  of  historic 
truth,  it  has  been  for  the  supposed  interests  of  the  papal 
church  to  make  the  utmost  account  of  Peter,  and  to  locate 
him  in  or  near  Rome  at  all  events.  Consequently  fresh 
historic  statements  were  starting  up  and  reported  all  along 


GENERAL   INTRODUCTION.  367 

down  the  ages — things  utterly  unknown  to  the  early  fathers. 
This  circumstance  led  Mosheim  to  sift  the  historic  testimo- 
nies and  to  say — "  I  would  not  reject  all  that  is  clearly  at- 
tested by  Origen,  Eusebius,  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Paulinus, 
Jerome,  Socrates  and  some  more  ancient  writers  quoted  by 
Eusebius ;  but  what  is  attested  only  by  authors  subseqent  to 
these  or  unknown,  I  would  not  readily  believe  unless  facts 
offer  themselves  to  corroborate  the  testimony." Follow- 
ing these  judicious  rules  of  Mosheim  (says  Dr.  Murdock)  we 
may  believe  that  Peter,  after  preaching  long  in  Judea  and 
other  parts  of  Syria,  probably  visited  Babylon,  Asia  Minor, 
and  finally  Rome,  where  he  was  crucified,"  (Mosh.  i.  57). 
— More  recent  writers  than  IMurdock  and  Mosheim  have 
scarcely  improved  upon  either  the  historic  facts  or  the  wis- 
dom of  their  critical  judgment. 

Under  so  much  reliable  light  of  history  we  may  locate  the 
writing  of  the  first  epistle  at  Babylon.  Where  the  second 
was  Avritten  the  epistle  itself  gives  no  intimation,  and  we 
must  be  content  not  to  know. 

V.  The  churches  addressed  and  their  locality. 

The  first  epistle  locates  the  people  addressed  as  "  scattered 
abroad"  in  these  five  provinces — viz.,  "  Pontus,  Galatia, 
Cappadocia,  Asia  and  Bithynia."  Of  these  Pontus  la}  ui)on 
the  southern  shore  of  the  Black  Sea,  near  its  eastern  extrem- 
ity; Bithynia  also  upon  the  southern  shore,  but  near  its 
western  end  ;  while  Capj^adocia,  Galatia  and  Asia  lay  south 
of  these,  stretching  westward  in  the  order  here  given  ;  i.  e., 
Pontus  and  Cappadocia  on  the  east,  towards  Armenia  and 
the  head  waters  of  the  Eu2:>hrates ;  the  others  farther  west. 

Three  of  these  five,  viz.,  Cappadocia,  Pontus  and  Asia, 

appear  in  the  enumeration  of  places  from  which  men  were 
present  at  the  great  Pentecost  as  in  Acts  2 :  9,  10.  This 
fact  suggests  that  Jews  and  proselytes  were  even  then  scat- 
tered over  those  provinces;  so  that,  returning  home  from 
those  wonderfully  impressive  scenes,  they  may  have  carried 
w^ith  them  the  first  rays  of  gospel  light  at  even  that  early 

day. The  name  '*  Asia"  as  used  here  is  by  no  means  the 

great  continent  now  known  by  this  name,  nor  even  all  that 
is  known  in  modern  times  as  Asia  Minor;  but  a  much 
smaller  province. 

That  Peter  had  traveled  and  preached  in  these  provinces 
may  be  assumed  to  be  probable,  yet  we  lack  original  historic 
evidence.  He  had  no  traveling  companion,  such  as  Paul 
had  in  Luke,  to  aid  him  in  his  labors,  and  then,  under  in- 


368  GENERAL   INTRODUCTION. 

spiration,  write  out  his  history.  It  is  not  hinted  why  the 
inspired  history  of  apostolic  missionary  hibors  is  so  meager, 
nnless  it  comes  under  the  reason  assigned  for  omitting  the 
yet  more  important  words  and  deeds  of  Jesus — viz.,  lest 
even  the  world  itself  might  not  contain  the  books  that  would 

have  been  written. Whether  Peter  had  or  had  not  been 

personally  in  those  remote  provinces,  his  name  had  doubtless 
been  there  ever  since  the  scenes  of  the  great  Pentecost. 
At  the  date  of  this  epistle  some  of  the  fathers  were  supposa- 
l)ly  still  living  who  heard  his  first  great  sermon  under  that 
wonderful  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

YI.  In  studying  the  objects  had  specially  in  view  in  the 
first  epistle,  we  may  fitly  hold  in  mind  the  great  fact,  fully 
indicated,  that  those  scattered  brethren  were  at  least  in 
peril  if  not  under  the  endurance  of  violent  persecution.  To 
strengthen  their  moral  courage  and  brace  their  souls  to  patient 
endurance,  Peter  did  not  confine  himself  to  the  glories  of 
the  martyr's  crown,  and  said  nothing  that  would  naturally 
minister  to  a  factitious  heroism  for  the  present  glory  thereof. 
But  with  a  far  more  broad  and  just  conception  of  the  case, 
he  sets  himself  to  build  up  their  real  piety  solid  from  the 
bottom  and  on  its  just  and  most  enduring  foundations.  He 
holds  ])efore  them  and  very  near  to  their  hearts  that  pre- 
cious Redeemer,  Jesus,  whose  resurrection  from  the  dead  had 
given  them  a  lively  hope  ;  who,  his  own  self  had  borne  their 
sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree ;  whom,  not  having  seen, 
they  had  loved,  and  in  whom,  though  not  yet  seeing  him, 
they  had  believed  and  therein  rejoiced  with  joy  mispeakable 

and  full  of  glory. The  entire  epistle  may  well  be  studied 

with  this  guiding  thread  in  our  hand — the  bearing  of  every 
great  consideration  presented  herein  upon  the  intrinsic 
energy  and  strength  of  the  Christian  life  in  their  heart. 
Even  the  special  duties  that  grow  up  under  our  various  so- 
cial relations — those  of  wives,  husbands,  servants,  subjects 
under  civil  government — are  not  to  be  neglected  but  rather 
cultivated  with  the  more  diligence  in  times  of  extreme  per- 
sonal peril,  that  Christians  under  sternest  trial  may  adorn 
the  gospel  and  confound  their  enemies.  Hence  the  scope 
and  bearing  of  this  first  epistle  sustains  a  tone  of  moral 
j)urity,  dignity  and  grandeur  that  has  rarely  been  equaled ; 
Ave  may  perhaps  say — never  surjiassed. 

The  second  epistle  has  some  of  the  same  qualities,  partic- 
ularly in  chapter  1.  The  second  chapter  exposes  the  vile 
character  and  pernicious  ways  of  false  teachers  then  infest- 


GENERAL   INTRODUCTION.  369 

ing  those  churches  ;  while  the  third  bears  upon  scoffers — set- 
ting forth  their  spirit,  their  folly  and  their  doom.  We  must 
think  of  the  aged,  venerable  Peter  as  writing  this  second 
epistle  under  a  sense  that  his  end  was  near  and  that  these 
were  his  last  words.  His  thought  turned  mostly  on  special 
points  that  seemed  to  him  of  urgent  importance.  Conse- 
quently we  have  no  right  in  this  epistle  to  look  for  those 
large,  broad  views  of  the  whole  Christian  life  which  make 
his  first  epistle  so  grand  and  so  impressive.  Each  fills  its 
place  admirably.  We  shall  read  them  with  ever-growing 
admiration  of  their  wisdom  and  of  their  power,  and  with 
gratitude  to  the  inditing  Spirit  that  moved  to  this  writing 
and  to  the  kind  Providence  that  has  preserved  them  to  bless 
all  the  generations  of  God's  people  to  the  end  of  time. 


THE  FIEST  EPISTLE  OF  PETER 


CHAPTER    I. 


The  author  incorporates  in  his  address  a  description  of  the 
Christian;  gives  his  readers  his  benediction  (v.  1,  2);  praises 
God  for  his  great  mercy  in  the  salvation  of  the  gospel  (v.  3),  and 
further  describes  it  (v.  4,  5)  ;  which  is  ground  for  exceeding  joy 
even  in  extremest  peril  (v.  6);  every  trial  of  their  faith  is  prov- 
ing it  as  fire  proves  and  purifies  gold  (v,  7) ;  Jesus,  though  un- 
seen, yet  loved  and  through  faith,  a  fountain  of  unspeakable  joy, 
the  end  of  which  shall  be  salvation  (v.  8,  9).  How  the  old  proph- 
ets studied  and  loved  the  Coming  One — as  do  the  angels  also 
(v.  10-12) — all  which  considei-ations  should  inspire  to  a  sober, 
obedient,  earnest,  holy  life  (v,  13-16).  Honest  prayer  to  the  in- 
finitely pure  Father  should  impress  reverential  fear  (v.  17);  the 
redeeming  blood  of  Christ  should  constrain  and  hold  men  to  the 
life  of  faith  and  hope  in  God  (v.  18-21).  As  obeying  the  truth 
through  the  Spirit  had  wrought  purity  in  their  hearts  and  love  of 
the  brethren,  so  should  they  cherish  such  purity  and  love  more 
and  more,  the  word  of  God  being  not  perishable  but  eternal  in 
its  nature  and  claims  (v.  22-25). 

1.  Peter,  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  the  strangers  scat- 
tered throughout  Poutus,  Galatia,  Cappadocia,  Asia,  and 
Bitliynia, 

2.  Elect  according  to  the  foreknowledge  of  God  the 
Father,  through  sanctification  of  the  Spirit,  unto  obedience 
and  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ :  Grace  unto  you, 
and  peace,  be  multiplied. 

These  "  strangers  "  were  better  called  sojourners,  in  a  country 
not  their  own.  The  Greek  word  for  "  scattered  "  suggests  that 
they  were  Jews,  dispersed  over  these  provinces — this  being  the 
usual  term  to  describe  this  people  in  their  dispersi(ms.  (8o  in 
John?:  35  and  James  1:1.)  The  question  whether  the  people 
addressed  were  by  nationality  Jews  has  been  discussed  and  dis- 
puted fiir  more  than  its  importance  can  justify.  1  will  only  say 
in  brief — that  the  words  of  this  v.  1  look  toward  Jews ;  as  does 
also  the  fixct  that  Jews  and  proselytes  came  up   from  these  prov- 

(370) 


I.  PETER. CHAP.   I.  371 

inces  to  the  Pentecost  of  Acts  2 ;  that  the  epistle  assumes  its 
readers  to  be  familiar  with  Old  Testament  prophets  and  their 
writings  (1  :  10-12  and  2 :  6  and  2  Eps.  1 :  20,  21  and  3:2,  13); 
also  with  Old  Testament  history  and  historic  characters  (1  Pet 
3  :  6,  20  and  2  Pet.  2:  5-8,  15,  16):  and  that  all  this  testimony 
is  by  no  means  set  aside,  or  even  materially  weakened  by  such 
words  as  those  in  1  Eps.  4:3;  "For  the  time  past  of  our  life 
may  suffice  us  to  have  wrought  the  will  of  the  Gentiles  " — inas- 
much as  this  might  be  said  of  men  of  Jewish  no  less  than  of 
Gentile  birth.  Doubtless  these  epistles  are  good  for  all  Gentile 
readers  of  every  age;  but  their  internal  indications  suggest  their 
original  adaptation  to  Jews. 

For  the  provinces  named  here  as  their  residence,  see  Introduc- 
tion, p.  367. 

In  the  words :  "  Elect  according  to  the  foreknowledge  of  God 
the  Father,"  the  difficulties  pertain  to  theology  rather  than  to  in- 
terpretation. The  sense  of  the  words  is  very  obvious  so  far  as 
the  province  of  interpretation  extends.  They  imply  that  election 
is  according  to  God's  foreknowledge.  This  interprets  their  proper 
meaning.  It  remains  for  the  theologian  to  inquire  whether  we 
can  ascertain  hoiu  God  foreknows  the  free  moral  activities  of 
men ;  how  the  fact  that  he  does  can  be  harmonized  with  man's 
freedom  ;  also,  whether  he  must  be  supposed  to  elect  men  accord- 
ing to  his  foreknowledge  of  what  they  will  do  loithout  his  own 
working  in  them  morally,  or  iciih  and  under  this  spiritual  in- 
working,  etc.  In  other  words,  does  his  election  hinge  upon  his 
foreknowing  things  as  they  are,  or  things  as  they  are  not  ?  Things 
as  they  are  means  a  world  of  free  and  morally  responsible  agents 
with  whose  freedom  God  never  interferes  but  always  honors  and 
recognizes  it;  means  a  system  of  spiritual  agencies  from  God 
working  toward  the  salvation  of  men,  which  agencies  of  the 
Spirit,  some  men  resist  to  their  own  ruin.  The  foreknowledge 
therefore  upon  which  election  turns  is  not  foreknowing  what  men 
would  do  if  there  were  no  Holy  Ghost,  or  what  they  would  do  if 
his  influences  were  withheld ;  but  it  is  rather  foreknowing  what 
men  will  do  under  the  truth  as  impressed  by  the  Spirit.  Hence 
we  can  readily  appreciate  the  supreme,  unparalleled  wisdom  of 
the  exhortation  :  "  Work  out  your  own  salvation  with  fear  and 
trembling,  fo7'  it  is  God  who  worketh  in  you  to  will  and  to  do  of 
his  good  pleasure  "  (Phil.  2 :   12,  13). 

It  can  scarcely  be  deemed  in  place  here  to  discuss  the  theolog- 
ical bearings  of  this  great  problem  further. 

Let  it  be  carefully  noted  that  this  election  is  carried  into  efiect 
in  and  by  sanctification  wrought  by  the  Spirit ;  and  that  it  works 
toward  and  unto  obedience — an  obedient  and  loving  heart, 
cleansed  spiritually  through  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  Jesus, 
Christ.  This  last  phrase  has  the  key  to  its  true  sense  in  the 
Mosaic  sacrificial  system,  in  which  blood-sprinklings  were  fre- 
quent, and  were  ceremonially  cleansing.  Translated  into  their 
gospel  significance,  they  have  their  fulfillment ;  {a)  In  the  aton- 


372  I.  PETER. — CHAP.  I. 

ing  blood  of  Christ  availing  for  the  sinner's  pardon : — (b)  In  the 
moral  and  spiritual  power  of  his  death,  made  effective  through 
the  Holy  Ghost  unto  a  new  and  holy  life. 

To  his  Christian  readers  thus  far  described,  he  extends  his  ben- 
edictions— "Grace  and  peace  be  multiplied;  "   "grace"  denoting 
specially  the  gifts  and  powers  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  and  "peace,' 
their  spiritual  fruits  and  results. 

3.  Blessed  he  tlie  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  which  according  to  his  abundant  mercy  hath  begot- 
ten us  again  unto  a  lively  hope  by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ  from  the  dead, 

4.  To  an  inheritance  incorruptible,  and  undefiled,  and  that 
fadeth  not  away,  reserved  in  heaven  for  you, 

5.  Who  are  kept  by  the  power  of  God  through  faith  unto 
salvation  ready  to  be  revealed  in  the  last  time. 

The  thought  of  so  great  mercy  from  God  may  well  inspire  such 
a  doxology.  Let  every  heart  unite  in  ascribing  all  blessing  and 
praise  to  God  even  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ !  Think 
what  He  has  done  !  In  his  great  mercy,  He  has  begotten  us 
anew  unto  a  living  hope — a  hope  full  of  life-power,  this  being 
done  especially  by  his  raising  up  Christ  from  the  dead ;  for  this 
act  sealed  and  crowned  his  gospel  mission,  and  should  therefore 
be  taken  as  the  Father's  attestation  and  indorsement  of  Christ's 
entire  redemptive  work. 

The  great  thought  of  what  renewing  grace  achieves  is  still  car- 
ried forward  in  v.  4. Christians  being  new-born  unto  a  living, 

most  inspiring  hope,  which  looks  toward  an  inheritance  incor- 
ruptible, undefiled,  unfading — these  points  being  in  strong  con- 
trast with  all  inheritances  of  mere  earthly  sort  which  perish  with 
the  using;  are  often  defiled  with  the  fraud  and  crime  by  which 
they  are  gotten,  and  the  best  of  which  must  soon  fade  utterly 
away,  as  blossoms  wither  in  one  brief  summer  day. For  safe- 
keeping this    inheritance   is    stored   in  heaven. For  lohom? 

Returning  again  to  this  point,  he  adds — For  you  who  are  kept  as 
in  a  walled  city  under  the  protecting  power  of  God,  working 
through  your  faith  unto  a  salvation  already  prepared  fully  for  its 
revelation  in  the  last  time.  The  Greek  participle  translated 
"kept"  carries  in  itself  the  full  significance  I  have  given  it — 
kept  as  in  a  high  tower,  or  within  the  strong  walls  of  a  city. 
The  writer's  thought  may  have  l)een  upon  that  grand  illustration 
current  in  the  olden  times  : — "  The  name  of  the  Lord  is  a  strong 
tower;  the  righteous  runneth  into  it  and  is  safe  "  (Prov.  18  :  10), 
Before  Solomon  wrote  those  words,  David  had  made  tlie  figure 
familiar,  as  in  his  song  of  triumph  over  all  his  enemies  (Ps.  IS  : 
2):  "The  Lord  is  my  rock  and  my  fortress,  and  my  high  tower." 
So  also  in  Ps.  144:  2.  Thus  have  the  joyful  experiences  of  God's 
people  all  along  the  ancient  ages  crystallized  into  these  grand 


I.    PETER. — CHAP.  I.  373 

military  figures — God,  their  perfect  and  everlasting  refuge,  the 
high  tower  within  whose  lofty  walls  they  are  forever  safe.  Or 
with  a  wider  range  of  illustrations  "  their  dwelling-place  through 

all  generations,"    their  home  and  sanctuary. What  want  in 

human  souls  does  he  not  supply,  against  what  perils  and  dangers 

is  not  his  name  a  pledge  of  safety  Forever ! Other  cases  of  the 

New  Testament  usage  of  this  Greek  word  for  "  kept,"  "  keep," 
may  be  seen  in  2  Cor.  11:  32:  "The  governor  kept  the  city 
with  a  garrison."  Gal.  3 :  23  :  "  Before  faith  came,  we  were 
kept  under  the  law,  shut  up  unto  the  faith  which  should  after- 
wards be  revealed."  Phil.  4:  7:  "The  peace  of  God  which 
passeth  all  understanding  shall  keep  your  heart  and  mind  through 
Christ  Jesus." 

6.  AVherein  ye  greatly  rejoice,  though  now  for  a  season, 
if  need  be,  ye  are  in  heaviness  through  manifold  tempta- 
tions : 

7.  That  the  trial  of  your  faith,  being  much  more  precious 
than  of  gold  that  perisheth,  though  it  be  tried  by  fire, 
might  be  found  unto  praise  and  honor  and  glory  at  the  ap- 
pearing of  Jesus  Christ : 

In  which  ye  exult — leap  for  joy — the  Greek  has  it — despite  of 
present  brief,  unavoidable  sorrow  under  manifold  trials.  The 
word  translated  "temptations"  is  better  put,  trials,  including 
those  fears,  dangers,  tortures,  loss  of  property  or  even  life  which 
came  through  violent  persecution.  All  this  might,  for  the  brief 
present,  abate  from  the  exuberance  of  their  Christian  joy.  But 
God  had  wise  ends  to  answer  by  means  of  afflictions,  even  such 
as  these — that  their  tried,  proved  faith,  more  precious  than  the 
most  refined  gold,  might  be  found  unto  praise,  honor,  and  glory 
when  Christ  should  appear.  Observe  here,  it  is  their  tried  faith 
rather  than  precisely  the  trial  itself  which  is  compared  with  the 
best  refined  gold,  such  gold  being  by  nature  perishable  though 
never  so  thoroughly  purified.  But  Christian  faith  wrought  into 
the  very  character  itself  and  purified  by  manifold  trials,  endures, 
with  no  decay,  forever;  shines  out  only  the  more  brightly  as  the 
ages  roll  on.  Good  character  lives  in  its  own  vitality  and  lives 
forever.  The  everlasting  God  will  foster  it,  and  enjoy  it,  may  we 
not  say,  be  proud  of  its  beauty  and  rejoice  in  its  surpassing 
glory ! 

"Found  unto  praise  and  glory" — yet  we  ought  to  ask — unto 
whose  praise;  unto  whose  glory?  The  answer  must  be — prima- 
rily to  the  praise  and  glory  of  Jesus  who  thus  proves  and  purifies 
the  souls  of  his  people.  This  is  the  richest  and  best  possible  re- 
sult, that  his  name  should  have  the  honor  of  this  redemptive, 
morally  cleansing  work  which  brings  out  moral  qualities  of  purity 
and  beauty  so  far  outshining  gold  though  seven  times  purified. 
Yet  what  turns  primarily  to  the  glory  and  praise  of  their  Ke- 


374  I.    PETER. — CHAP.    I. 

deemer  is  in  its  indirect  and  remote  bearings  inexpressibly  bliss- 
ful to  them  as  well.     Nothing  could  be  more  so. 

8.  Whom  having  not  seen,  ye  love;  in  wliom,  though 
now  ye  see  him  not,  yet  believing,  ye  rejoice  with  joy  un- 
speakable and  full  of  glory: 

9.  Receiving  the  end  of  your  faith,  even  the  salvation  of 
your  souls. 

It  might  be  assumed  that  none  of  Peter's  contemplated 
readers  had  ever  seen  Jesus  in  the  flesh.  Yet  they  loved  him. 
Not  now  seeing  him,  but  yet  believing,  ye  (so  he  addresses  them) 
rejoice,  exulting  Avith  such  joy  as  no  words  can  express — a  joy 

all-glorious  ! Not  seeing  iioiv,  tacitly  assumes  that  they  will 

see  him  in  the  heavenly  life,  but  a  little  way  in  the  future. 

In  the  words,  "  receiving  the  end  of  your  faith,"  the  Greek,  like 
our  English,  has  the  present  participle.  Does  Peter  use  the  pres- 
ent for  the  future  because  he  thinks  of  it  as  so  very  near;  or  is 
his  thought  upon  the  foretastes  of  heaven  that  enrich  the  soul 
even  here  and  guaranty  the  bliss  to  come  by  giving  some  fore- 
stallmonts  of  it  in  advance  ?  Or  (as  the  case  may  be)  the  present 
may  indicate  the  simple  certainty  of  the  blessed  result.  They 
might  feel  that  it  is  even  now  Avithin  their  grasp.  They  are  in 
a  very  vital  sense  saved  already. 

This  passage  is  richly  suggestive,  thus  :  (1.)  That  love  to  Christ 
may  exist  in  its  best  purity,  and  may  reach  a  very  high  develop- 
ment, through  faith  alone,  with  no  aid  from  the  sense  of  sight. 
Faith  accepts  the  record  of  all  Jesus  said  and  did ;  welcomes  the 
testimony  that  comes  from  his  tears  and  from  his  blood  shed  for 
sin;  sees  in  all  this  a  personal  Savior  offering  himself  to  ])e 
trusted,  loved,  obeyed;  and  what  need  we  more?  We  might  al- 
most say — What  could  the  sight  of  the  eye  add  to  all  this?  With 
any  amount  of  eye-vision,  we  should  still  need  the  words  and  the 
deeds,  the  promises  and  the  invitations,  the  manifested  sympathy 
and  the  assurances  of  his  undying  love ;  these  elements  upon 
which  our  faith  takes  hold  we  should  still  need  as  an  intelligent 
basis  for  our  personal  trust  in  him  to  become  our  Savior.  (2.)  The 
passage  therefore  suggests  what  we  may  put  as  a  special  point, 
viz.,  that  Christ's  spoken  words  and  recorded  deeds  provide  an 
ample  and  solid  foundation  for  intelligent  faith  and  for  the  utmost 
depth  and  purity  of  love. 

(o).  Inasmuch  as  almost  the  entire  body  of  Christ's  saved  peo- 
ple are  shut  up  in  the  present  world  to  such  faith  as  can  1)0 
attained  without  the  aid  of  sight,  it  is  the  divine  policy  to  honor 
such  faith  and  to  give  it  s[>ecial  reward.  This  seems  to  be  tlie 
implied  sense  of  Christ's  Avoi-ds  to  Thomas  (.lohn  20:  2U):  "Be- 
cause thou  hast  seen  me,  thou  hast  believed :  blessed  [inore 
blessed]  are  tliey  that  liave  not  seen  me  and  y(^t  have  l)clieved." 
More  blessed  than  these  Jesus  must  lie  understood  to  imply. 
Their  faith  is  a  higher  virtue,  a  nobler  testimony  to  God's  veracity 


I.    PETER. — CHAP.    I.  375 

and  therefore  more  grateful  to  his  heart.  It  is  one  of  the  lofty 
purposes  of  our  present  earthly  discipline  to  cherish  and  develop 
this  pure,  unfaltering  faith  in  God  which  simply  trusts  his  word 
and  reposes  upon  it,  though  these  mortal  eyes  have  as  yet  seen 
nothing, 

(4).  Christians  are  in  perpetual  danger  of  over-estimating  the 
value  of  the  personal  vision  of  Christ  in  this  world  of  flesh  and 
sense;  while  on  the  other  hand,  they  are  prone  to  under-estimate 
the  value  of  that  simple  faith  which  rests  on  his  recorded  words 
and  deeds,  and  seeks  through  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  those  inspir- 
ing realizations  of  unseen  things  which  Jesus  promised  in  the 
words;  "He  shall  guide  you  into  all  truth";  "He  shall  glorify 
me;  for  he  shall  receive  of  mine  and  shall  show  it  unto  you 
(John  16  :  13-15).  Those  who  long  so  intensely  for  his  visible 
coming  to-day — if  really  their  thought  is  upon  it  as  a  richer 
means  of  grace  and  a  source  of  higher  Christian  purity  and  joy 
— should  ask  themselves  if  these  longings  are  not  outside  of  God's 
plan — a  scheme  of  their  own  hearts'  devising — in  which  they  dis- 
parage faith  by  their  passionate  demands  for  what  is  in  truth  only 
of  sense. 

Of  the  joys  of  believing,  described  here  as  unutterable  in 
words  and  all-glorious,  what  shall  we  say  ? — First,  that  they  are 
to  a  certain  extent  present  joys — not  merely  future  ;  at  least,  they 
are  so  thought  of  here.     As  the  believing  without  seeing  is  now,  so 

are  the  joys  of  such  believing. Again,  it  must  not  be  denied 

that  they  are  in  part  joys  of  hope — the  joyous  anticipation  of 
future  blessedness.     The  context  leads   the  mind  to  this:  "The 

end  of  your  faith,  the  salvation  of  your  souls." But  by  far 

the  most  vital  point  to  be  noticed  is  that  the  chief  and  best  of 
these  joys  of  believing  do  not  terminate  upon  one's  self,  but 
rather  upon  Jesus.  They  are  joy  in  what  he  is,  is  doing,  is  to  do 
— rather  than  in  what  we  are  to  have  from  him.  It  is  possible 
to  human  nature  to  have  thoughts  of  heaven  and  joys  in  the  an- 
ticipation of  heaven  that  should  have  no  better  name  than  selfish. 
It  would  be  an  egregious  abuse  of  language  to  call  those  selfish 
joys  "  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory."     Selfishness  never  rises  to 

any  such  exalted  heights  of  blessedness. Over  against  these, 

and  all  unlike  them,  are  joys  that  terminate  in  Christ; — the  joys 
of  becoming  acquainted  with  such  a  character;  the  deep  and  up- 
lifting admiration  of  its  purity  and  excellence ;  the  quiet  but  solid 
bliss  that  comes  of  entering  into  sympathy  with  Christ  in  his 
loving  activities  and  self-sacrifices ;  a  sense  of  being  at  one  with 
him  in  that  which  makes  his  work  the  bliss  of  heaven,  the  glori- 
ous joy  of  all  the  good.  Add  to  this  the  sense  that  Jesus  is  all 
in  all,  and  our  little  selves  virtually  nothing;  also  the  vast  and 
ever-growing  conception  of  the  myriad  masses  that  are  blessed  in 
him  and  are  to  be  forever — the  heart  entering  by  sympathy  into 
the  joy  of  those  masses  of  intelligent  existence  as  they  are  seen 
lifted  to  higher  and  yet  higher  planes  of  thought  and  purity  of 
love — each  redeemed  one  sweetly  conscious  that  the  joy  of  every 


376  I.  PETER. — CHAP.    I. 

saint  is  also  his  own,  so  that  he  shall  find  his  own  blessedness 
rising  and  swelling  forever  as  he  drinks  in  and  makes  his  own 
all  this  ocean  of  blessedness  of  which  Jesus  is  the  eternal  Fount- 
ain.  All  this  lifts   one  above  and  bears  him  away  from  the 

miserable  selfishness  that  dwarfs  and  blights  all  real  joy,  and  in- 
terprets to  us  what  it  must  be  to  have  the  eternal  God  our  Por- 
tion and  to  inherit  Him  through  Jesus  as  his  own  accepted  chil- 
dren.  If  there  be  difficulty  in  gaining  a  definite  sense  of  these 

joys  of  believing  in  Jesus,  it  must  be  put  to  the  account  of  very 
imperfect  conceptions  of  the  heavenly  blessedness.  When  "the 
pure  in  heart  shall  see  God";  Avhen  "  those  that  hunger  and  thirst 
after  righteousness  shall  be  filled";  when  "we  shall  be  satisfied, 
awaking  in  his  likeness";  when  we  "shall  see  Jesus  as  he  is"; 
— then  we  shall  be  able  to  estimate  and  measure  these  joys  of 
believing  that  are  indeed  "  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory." 

10.  Of  which  salvation  the  prophets  have  inquired  and 
searched  diligently,  who  prophesied  of  the  grace  that  should 
come  unto  you : 

11.  Searching  what,  or  what  manner  of  time  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  which  was  in  them  did  signify,  when  it  testified  before- 
hand the  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  the  glory  that  should 
follow. 

12.  Unto  whom  it  w^as  revealed,  that  not  unto  themselves, 
but  unto  us  they  did  minister  the  things,  which  are  now  re- 
ported unto  you  by  them  that  have  preached  the  gospel 
unto  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from  heaven ; 
which  things  the  angels  desire  to  look  into. 

In  respect  to  which  salvation,  the  prophets  inquired  and 
searched  most  diligently  (both  verbs  being  made  very  intensive), 
who  prophesied  of  the  gospel  grace  destined  for  you; — the  two 
definite  points  of  this  search  being  (a)  '' ichat  time  '  and  (6)  2vhat 
sort  of  a  time,  i.  e.,  what  time  chronologically;  and  marked  by 
what  events — known  by  what  characteristics — historically. 

The  time  chronologically  was  given  with  greatest  precision 
through  Daniel  (9 :  24) :  Seventy  sevens  of  years,  equal  to  four 
hundred  and  ninety,  measured  the  time  then  intervening.  The 
time  was  indicated  to  Daniel  in  a  more  general  way  as  following 
the  fall  of  the  great  powers,  mostly  hostile  to  Israel,  the  Messiah's 
kingdom— beginning  with  his  inauguration  upon  his  ascension  to 

heaven — becoming  thus  the  fifth  kingdom,  to  stand  forever. 

To  Jacob  (Gen.  49:  10)  the  Messiah,  under  the  name  Shiloh 
(Prince  of  Peace)  was  foretold  as  to  come  before  the  scepter  had 
entirely  dropped  from  the  hand  of  her  earthly  kings  :  "  The  scep- 
ter shall  not  depart  from  Judah     .     .     .     till  Shiloh  come;  him 

shall  the  nations  obey." So  much  as  to  the  first  point — the 

iiyne  tvhen,  chronologically. 

As  to   the  second  point — the  historical  characteristics  of  the 


I.    PETER. CHAP.    I.  377 

time — prophecy  gave  his  birthplace,  Bethlehem  (Micah  5:2): 
indicated  in  many  distinct  prophecies  his  humble  (not  magnificent) 
origin ;  his  birth  in  David's  line  genealogically,  and  of  a  virgin 
mother  (Isaiah  7:  14);  saying  moreover  (Deut.  32:  43):  "When 
he  bringeth  his  first-begotten  into  the  world,  let  all  the  angels  of 

God  worship  him." These  are  specimens,  not  exhaustive,  of  the 

attendant  incidents  which  denoted  ''what  manner  of  time''  the 
spirit  of  prophecy  foreindicated  as  to  the  Great  Messiah. 

"The  spirit  of  Christ  in  them"  was  making  known,  foreshow- 
ing, "the  sufferings  of  Christ  and  the  glories  that  followed" 
closely  after.  Was  making  known — the  tense  itself  denoting 
continuous  action,  for  these  prophecies  were  consecutive  and  long 
continued.  The  two  main  points  of  chief  interest  were  the  suffer- 
ings that  should  come  upon  Christ,  as  we  may  read  in  Isaiah  53, 
and  the  glories  (plural)  that  should  ensue  as  his  reward,  referring 
to  his  resurrection,  ascension,  enthronement  in  the  highest  heav- 
ens at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  and  the  gift  of  the  nations  as 
his  inheritance.  These  points  we  may  find  in  Psalms  16  ;  110  :  2, 
in  Isaiah  also,  and  elsewhere. 

To  them  it  was  revealed  that  not  for  themselves  but  for  you 
were  they  ministering  as  revealing  prophets  the  things  now  an- 
nounced to  you  by  those  who  preach  to  you  the  gospel  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from  heaven.  The  great  events  of  the 
gospel  history  thrilled  the  souls  of  the  old  prophets,  though  seen 
but  dimly.  The  salvation  of  which  those  events  testified  sent 
back  its  blessings  to  those  ancient  saints  as  well  as  forward  to 
these  after  ages.  Yet  in  the  sense  of  the  time  of  their  full  man- 
ifestation, it  was  not  for  them,  but  for  the  men  of  Peter's  gener- 
ation. 

Having  spoken  thus  fully  of  the  thrilling  interest  and  profound 
study  of  the  old  prophets  in  this  gospel,  Peter  adds  that  this  same 
theme  was  also  a  profound  study  to  the  angels.  They,  too,  long  to 
search  into  these  things.  His  Greek  verb  signifies  that  they  press 
up  very  close  and  push  their  inquiries  most  earnestly.  Indeed, 
by  etymology  the  verb  seems  to  denote  bending  down  over  an 
object  for  the  purpose  of  more  close  and  thorough  examination. 

These  are  the  unfallen  angels.  They  have  no  experience  of  sin ; 
they  have  never  felt  a  conscious  sense  of  its  vileness,  have  never 
tasted  its  woes;  but  some  idea  of  its  guilt  and  ruin  they  unques- 
tionably have,  and  their  sympathies  are  stirred  deeply  toward  this 
•wonderful  scheme  of  human  redemption.  They  know  something 
of  Jesus ;  for  when  the  Lord  of  heaven  brought  his  first-begotten 
into  the  world,  he  said,  "Let  all  the  angels  of  God  worship  him;" 
and  "  suddenly  there  was  with  the  revealing  angel  a  multitude  of 
the  heavenly  host,  praising  God  and  saying,  Glory  to  God  in  the 
highest  heavens;  on  earth,  peace;  good-will  to  men." 

13.  Wherefore  gird  up  the  loins  of  your  mind,  he  sober, 
and  hope  to  the  end  for  the  grace  that  is  to  be  brought  unto 
you  at  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ; 


378  I.    PETER. — CHAP.  I, 

14.  As  obedient  children,  not  fashioning  yourselves  ac- 
cording to  the  former  hists  in  your  ignorance: 

15.  But  as  he  which  liath  called  you  is  holy,  so  be  ye 
holy  in  all  manner  of  conversation ; 

16.  Because  it  is  written,  Be  ye  holy;  for  I  am  holy. 

"Girdini!;  up  the  loins"  comes  from  the  oriental  modes  of  dress, 
and  signifies  to  prepare  for  the  utmost  activity  of  labor.  Here  it 
is   the   loins  of  the  mind — mind   as  the  instrument  of  thought, 

knowledge. "Be  sober,"  in  the  sense  of  temperate,  retaining 

the  full  possession  and  control  of  your  powers,  always  in  readi- 
ness for  the  most  vigorous  activities.  Keep  your  mind  and  heart 
in  order  for  most  effective  service.  And  hope  perfectly — not  as 
our  English  would  suggest,  all  the  way  through  life;  but  rather, 
hope  with  no  faltering  of  fear  or  doubt;  let  your  hope  be  entire, 

perfect.     Perfect  is  the  legitimate  sense  of  the  original. "  For 

the  grace  to  be  borne  unto  you  at  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ." 
This  must  refer  to  his  future  and  final  coming,  at  wdiich  event 
the  grace  destined  for  them  w^ould  reach  its  full  consummation. 

As  children  thoroughly  obedient  to  the   manifested  will  of 

God.  "Fashioning  themselves"  assumed  a  power  of  self-shaping 
and  culture,  for  the  right  use  of  which  they  are  eminently  respon- 
sible. They  can  form  their  own  habits,  can  determine  their  own 
activities,  and  so  can  mold  their  own  personal  character.  Hence 
the  pertinence  of  this  grand  exhortation  that  this  self-culture 
should  not  shape  their  life  and  character  according  to  their  old 
lusts  when  they  knew  no  better,  but  according  to  the  perfect 
model  of  the  Heavenly  One  who  had  called  them.  As  he  was 
spotless  in  holiness,  so  let  them  become  holy  in  all  their  life,  in 

all  their  activities. Become  rather  than  he,  is  the  sense  of  the 

Greek.  "  Manner  of  conversation"  is  a  very  infelicitous  transla- 
tion for  our  age,  the  word  "conversation"  having  quite  lost  its 
old  sense,  the  habitudes  of  one's  life,  and  come  to  mean  merely 
speech — speaking  one  to  another  in  social  communion. 

"It  is  written,"  seems  to  refer  to  the  words  of  Christ  (Matt.  5: 
48):  "Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  even  as  your  Father  in  heaven  is 
perfect."  The  words  occur,  however,  more  exactly  in  the  Old 
Testament  (Lev.  11  :  44,  45,  and  19:  2,  and  20:  7,  26).  8uch  an 
example,  so  high,  so  pure,  so  glorious — how  should  it  inspire 
God's  children!  How  should  they  honor  their  parentage  and 
meet  the  responsibilities  of  children  made  in  the  very  image  of 
their  Great  Father,  so  that  ])y  virtue  of  their  original  creation 
and  ])y  tiieir  being  ncw-}>orn  to  God,  tliey  l^ecomc  in  every  respect 
capable  of  conforming  their  personal  character  and  life  to  hia 
pure  holiness ! 

17.  And  if  ye  call  on  the  Father,  who  without  respect 
of  persons  judgeth  according  to  every  man's  work,  pass  the 
time  of  your  sojourning  here  in  fear. 

"  If  ye  call  on  the  Father,"  suggests  the  responsibility  involved 


I.  PETER. CHAP.  I.  379 

in  prayer.  If  ye  avail  yourselves  of  your  privilege  of  saying, 
"Our  Father;"  if  ye  professedly,  avovredly,  come  to  him  as  chil- 
dren, and  take  his  name  upon  you  as  your  Father,  then  be  ye 
very  honest  before  such  a  God !  For  he  will  look  upon  the  heart ! 
Those  who  worship  him  must  worship  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 
Never  will  his  eye  be  dazzled  with  the  mere  external  display. 
With  him  is  no  regard  to  outside  appearances.  He  judges  every 
man  by  his  doings.  Take  care  then  that  ye  fill  out  the  time  of 
your  earthly  sojourn  in  reverential  fear.  The  verb  translated 
"pass  the  time,"  suggests  the  constant  activities  of  life — the  per- 
petual turning  round  and  round  in  all  active  thought  and  work. 

18.  Forasmuch  as  ye  know  that  ye  were  not  redeemed 
with  corruptible  things,  as  silver  and  gold,  from  your  vain 
conversation  received  by  tradition  from  your  fathers ; 

19.  But  Avith  the  precious  blood  of  Christ,  as  of  a  lamb 
without  blemish  and  without  spot : 

Do  all  this,  knowing,  under  a  vivid  sense  of  the  truth,  that  ye 
were  not  redeemed  with  perishable  treasure,  like  silver  or  gold, 
but  with  the  precious  blood  of  Christ  as  of  a  spotless,  stainless, 

lamb. "lledeemed"  is  here  in  its  primary  sense,  bought  off, 

ransomed  as  captives  in  war,  or  slaves  bought  into  freedom.  In 
this  case,  redeemed  from  your  vain,  fruitless,  ruinous  course  of 
life — which  had  come  down  by  tradition  from  the  fathers.  Those 
giant  powers  of  example  and  education  are  thought  of  which 
hold  the  myriads  of  our  race  under  the  bonds  of  traditionary 
notions,  principles,  and  habits,  so  that  generation  after  genera- 
tion, children  follow  blindly  and  with  almost  never  a  deviation, 
the  course  of  life  led  by  their  fathers  before  them.  But,  he  would 
say,  in  your  case  God  has  interposed  with   redemption   through 

Jesus  to  break  those  bonds  and  to  set  the  captives  free. The 

precious  blood  of  Christ  as  of  a  spotless  lamb  has  the  levitical 
lamb  of  sacrifice  for  its  symbol,  but  Jesus,  the  gospel  lamb  of 
sacrifice,  for  its  reality. 

20.  Who  verily  was  foreordained  before  the  foundation  of 
the  world,  but  was  manifest  in  these  last  times  for  you, 

21.  Who  by  him  do  believe  in  God,  that  raised  him  up 
from  the  dead,  and  gave  him  glory;  that  your  faith  and 
hope  might  be  in  God. 

"  Foreknown"  is  the  primary  sense  of  the  Greek  verb  ;  yet  by 
implication,  foredetermined  becomes  the  real  sense;  for  simply 
to  foreknow  without  foredetermining  would  in  this  case  be  simply 
inoperative  and  of  no  effect- — it  being  a  thing  for  God — not  man — 
to  do.  Before  the  world  was  made,  this  divine  Redeemer  was 
fully  in  the  thought  and  plan  of  God,  but  not  made  known  until 
these  last  times,  and  now  for  your  sakes  who  by  him  are  faithful 
toward  God  who  raised  him  from  the  dead  and  gave  him  glory, 
so  that  your  faith  and  hope  become  truly  in  and  toward  God. 


380  I.    PETEE. — CHAP.    I. 

The  reading  of  the  oldest  manuscripts,  approved  by  the  best 
critics,  is  not — "do  believe  in  God,"  but,  are  faithful  (pistous, 
Tzistova)  maintaining  the  moral  attitude  of  believing  trust.  Great 
stress  is  laid  upon  the  decisive  fact  that  God  raised  Jesus  from 
the  dead  as  conclusive  proof  that  his  heart  and  hand  are  in  this 
scheme  of  salvation;  that  he  honors  Jesus  as  his  own  Son;  makes 
him  our  Great  High  Priest;  fully  indorses  his  redemptive  work; 
enthrones  him  king  in  his  mediatorial  kingdom.  Thus  your 
faith  and  hope  come  to  rest  in  God. 

22.  Seeing  ye  have  purified  your  souls  in  obeying  the 
truth  through  the  Spirit  unto  unfeigned  love  of  the  breth- 
ren, see  that  ye  love  one  another  with  a  pure  heart  fervently : 

23.  Being  born  again,  not  of  corruptible  seed,  but  of  in- 
corruptible, by  the  word  of  God,  which  liveth  and  abideth 
forever. 

The  form  of  the  expression — "  Having  purified  your  souls  by 
obeying  the  truth  unto  unhypocritical  love  of  the  brethren" — 
suggests  that  they  have,  yet  suggests  it  in  such  a  way  as  amounts 

to  a  tacit  exhortation  to  do  so  if  not  done  already. The  three 

oldest  manuscripts  concur  in  omitting  the  words — "  through  the 
Spirit."  This  fact  seems  to  indicate  that  these  words  were  in- 
serted subsequently  as  an  explanation  or  comment. The  ex- 
hortation follows; — Love  one  another  from  the  heart  fervently. 
The  better  text  omits  "pure"  before  "heart." Being  new- 
born, not  of  corruptible  but  of  incorruptible  seed,  viz.,  by  the 
living,  abiding  word  of  God.  The  adjectives  "living,"  "abiding," 
should  apply  to  "word,"  not  to  "Gud."  So  the  context  (v.  25) 
demands;  while  the  order  of  the  words  in  themselves  favors  this 
construction.  The  permanent  character  of  the  divine  word  is  the 
thought  made  prominent  here.  This  enduring,  changeless  word 
of  God,  his  revealed  truth,  had  been  made  the  instrument  under 
God  in  their  new  birth.  Therefore,  let  them  prize  it,  hold  it  fast 
among  their  imperishable  treasures. 

24.  For  all  flesh  is  as  grass,  and  all  the  glory  of  man  as 
the  flower  of  grass.  The  grass  Avithereth,  and  the  flower 
thereof  falleth  away: 

25.  But  the  word  of  the  Lord  endureth  forever.  And 
this  is  the  word  which  by  the  gospel  is  preached  unto  you. 

This  passage  is  from  Isa.  40:  6-8,  with  only  slight  variations, 
not  affecting  the  sense.  There,  the  word  of  God  thought  of  was 
his  great  word  of  gospel  promise  :  here,  this  word  of  promise  is 
performed,  fulfilled— the  very  gospel  preached  (says  Peter)  unto 
you.  Isaiah  thought  of  that  word  of  gospel  promise  as  pro- 
foundly sure.  Set  for  comparison  beside  the  most  beauteous 
things  in  nature,  or  tlie  most  precious  results  of  human  thought, 
it  would  stand  unchanged  and  its  glory  be  forever  unfading; 
while  all  flesh  is  like  grass  and  its    best  things  like  the  fading 


I.    PETEE. — CHAP.    II.  381 

flower.  Therefore  let  the  saints  of  God  hold  their  gospel  word 
in  highest  honor,  cherish  it  as  everlasting  truth,  and  make  it  the 
man  of  their  counsel  through  all  generations. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Carrying  out  his  thought  as  to  this  enduring  gospel  word  and 
applying  it  broadly  to  practical  Christian  life,  he  exhorts  to  the 
putting  away  of  all  sin  (v.  1);  to  self-nutrition  upon  the  pure 
milk  of  truth  (2);  if  really  they  have  experienced  the  great  grace 
of  the  Lord  (3) ;  then  presents  Jesus,  according  to  one  of  the 
Old  Testament  figures,  as  a  living  stone,  exalted  to  the  place  of 
chief  honor  in  God's  great  temple :  they  too  are  to  become  living 
stones  in  this  spiritual  temple  (4,  5) — a  point  further  illustrated 
from  certain  Old  Testament  Scriptures  in  its  application  both  to 
those  who  believe  and  to  those  who  do  not  (6-8) ;  the  honored 
destiny  of  believers  yet  more  fully  set  forth  (9,  10) ;  which  should 
inspire  them  to  the  utmost  vigilance  against  sin  and  unto  holi- 
ness (11,  12).  These  principles  are  applied  to  their  Christian 
duties  as  citizens  (13-17);  as  servants  (18-20);  and  enforced  by 
the  example  of  Christ  (21-23)  whose  sacrificial  suflerings  for  the 
salvation  of  his  people  should  press  them  forward  mightily  in  a 
holy  life  (24,  25). 

1.  Wherefore  laying  aside  all  malice,  and  all  guile,  and 
hypocrisies,  and  envies,  and  all  evil  speakings, 

2.  As  new-born  babes,  desire  the  sincere  milk  of  the  word, 
that  ye  may  grow  thereby: 

3.  If  so  be  ye  have  tasted  that  the  Lord  is  gracious. 

"Wherefore"  looks  back  logically  to  their  being  new-born  to 
God  by  his  immortal  word,  whose  pertinence  and  power  endure 
forever.  Having  been  so  new-born,  let  them  expel  from  their 
heart  and  life  all  these  sins — of  which  a  long  catalogue  is  named; 
— malice,  guile,  hypocrisies,  envyings,  all  evil  speakings — various 
forms  of  sin  that  have  their  roots  in  selfishness,  in  unhallowed 
self-seeking  and  reckless  undervaluing  of  others'  interests  and 
rights.  Every  thing  in  this  list  is  in  utter  repugnance  to  the 
love  of  one's  neighbor  which  the  gospel  spirit  and  law  demand. 
They  all  contemplate  man  in  social  life  ;  are  the  sins  to  which  the 

selfish  soul  is  tempted  in  its  social  relations. As  to  all  these 

sins,  let  them  consider  themselves  as  babes  beginning  a  new  life, 
utterly  unlike  the  old.  Like  new-born  babes  let  them  earnestly 
desire,  intensely  long  for,  the  pure  milk  of  gospel  truth,  such  as 
p,dapt3  itself  to  the  spiritual  development  of  God's  children  from 
17 


382  I.   PETER. — CHAP.   II. 

infancy  upward,  that  by  it  they  may  grow  unto  salvation — these 
words,  "  unto  salvation,"  being  an  improvement  in  the  original 
text  brought  out  by  the  older  manuscripts.     Growth  in  a  holy 

heart  and  life  is  growth  toward  and  unto  salvation. If  indeed 

ye  have  learned  in  your  experience  that  the  Lord  is  gracious — 
'/.  6.,  good,  kind,  rich  in  spiritual  blessings.  Peter  assumes  that  as 
souls  new-born  to  God,  they  must  have  experienced  this  sweet 
sense  of  the  Lord's  love.  Therefore,  let  this  experience  inspire 
them  to  holy  aspiration  and  endeavor,  but  especially  to  seek  food 
for  their  souls  in  the  pure  truths  of  God's  word — those  truths 
being  adapted  to  rational  minds  and  to  souls  new-born  to  the 
love  and  service  of  God. 

4.  To  whom  coming  as  unto  a  living  stone,  disallowed  in- 
deed of  men,  but  chosen  of  God,  and  precious, 

5.  Ye  also,  as  lively  stones,  are  built  up  a  spiritual  house, 
a  holy  priesthood,  to  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices,  acceptable 
to  God  b^  Jesus  Christ. 

It  is  certainly  supposable  that  the  figure  which  conceives  of 
Christ  as  a  chief  corner-stone  in  God's  temple  and  his  people  also 
as  livin.ii;  stones  built  into  that  temple,  may  have  had  special  in- 
terest to  Peter  as  he  remembered  the  name  Jesus  gave  him  at 
their  first  introduction  (John  1:  42):  "Thou  art  Simon;  thou 
shalt  be  called  Cephas" — meaning  in  Aramean,  a  stone,  to  which 
Petros  in  Greek  corresponds.  Another  play  upon  his  name  ap- 
pears in  Matt.  IG  :  18:  "Thou  art  Peter  [rock],  and  upon  this 
rock  I  will  build  my  church,"  etc. But  whether  or  not  the  sig- 
nificance of  his  own  name  lent  interest  to  this  figure,  no  one  can 
doubt  that  he  had  in  mind  such  Old  Testament  passages  as  we 
find  Pa.  118:  22;  "The  stone  which  the  builders  refused  is  be- 
come the  head-stone  of  the  corner";  and  Isa.  28:  16:  "Behold, 
I  lay  in  Zion  for  a  foundation  a  stone,  a  tried  stone,  a  precious 
corner-stone,  a  sure  foundation;  he  that  believeth  shall  not  make 
haste."  Moreover,  he  may  have  been  familiar  with  the  words  of 
his  "  beloved  brother  Paul""  (as  in  Eph.  2  :  19-22)  :  "  Ye  are  of  the 
household  of  God,  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and 
prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the  chief  corner-stone ;  in 
whom  all  the  building  fitly  framed  together,  groweth  unto  an  holy 
temple  in  the  Lord;   in  whom  ye  also  are  builded  together  for  an 

habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit." The  central  thoughts 

here  are — a  spiritual  temple ,  Jesus  the  chief  corner-stone ;  his 
people  also  stones  built  into  this  holy  temple  for  purposes  of  spirit- 
ual sacrifice,  worship,  service  unto  (iod.  Accessory  points  w<u'tliy 
of  note  are — that  Jesus  is  a  living  stone,  not  a  doad  one;  not  a 
mere  geological  rock;  that  his  people  also  are  living  stones — liv- 
ing better  than  "  lively,"  wliich  in  the  sense  here,  has  becomo 
obsolete.  The  Greek  has  the  same  word  for  Christ's  people  as 
for  himself — both  " //t'///r/ stones."  That  .Jesus  had  been  "disal- 
lowed," disowned  and  refused  of  men,  but  chosen  and  precious 
before  God,  is  also  a  prominent  point  in  the  general  illustration. 


I.  PETEE.— CHAP.   II.  383 

6.  Wherefore  also  it  is  contained  in  the  Scripture,  Behold, 
I  lay  in  Sion  a  chief  corner-stone,  elect,  precious :  and  he  that 
believeth  on  him  shall  not  be  confounded. 

7.  Unto  you  therefore  which  believe  he  is  precious :  but 
unto  them  which  be  disobedient,  the  stone  which  the  build- 
ers disallowed,  the  same  is  made  the  head  of  the  corner, 

8.  And  a  stone  of  stumbling,  and  a  rock  of  offense,  eveii 
to  them  which  stumble  at  the  word,  being  disobedient :  where- 
unto  also  they  were  appointed. 

9.  But  ye  are  a  chosen  generation,  a  royal  priesthood,  a 
holy  nation,  a  peculiar  people;  that  ye  should  shew  forth 
the  praises  of  him  who  hath  called  you  out  of  darkness  into 
his  marvelous  light: 

10.  Which  in  time  past  were  not  a  people,  but  are  now 
the  people  of  God :  which  had  not  obtained  mercy,  but  now 
have  obtained  mercy. 

In  the  first  words  of  v.  6,  the  improved  reading  has  ^^  dioii" 
instead  of  "  dio  kai,"  and  requires  the  sense  Because  instead  of 
Wherefore.  Because  confirms  what  is  said  before  by  the  citations 
that  follow;  which  is  the  true  sense.  "Wherefore"  would  assume 
that  what  follows  depends  on  what  precedes  and  ought  to  be  be- 
cause the  things  previously  stated  were  facts.     This  would  reverse 

the  logical  order  of  the  two  clauses. The  quotation  in  v.  6  is 

abbreviated  from  Isa.  28  :  16 — quoted  above. "  Be  confounded" 

means  put  to  shame  by  cruel  disappointment  in  his  faith  and  hope. 

In  the  first  clause  of  v.  7  the  translation — "he  is  precious" 
should  be  set  aside,  to  give  place  to  a  better — because  though  a 
truth  and  a  noble  one,  it  is  probably  not  the  truth  which  Peter 
intended  to  express  here.  The  Greek  gives  us  nothing  which 
signifies  ''he."  The  word  for  ''precious"  is  the  abstract  noun 
"  time  "  (ft^u?))  honor,  with  the  article — the  honor.  In  the  conneo- 
tion,  translate  thus  :  "Behold,  I  lay  in  Zion  a  chief  corner-stone, 
choice,  honorable ;  and  whoever  believeth  in  him  shall  not  be  put 
to  shame."  Therefore,  to  you  believers  is  the  honor  [not  the 
shame] ;  but  as  to  the  unbelieving,  the  stone  which  the  builders 
rejected  has  become  the  head-stone  of  the  corner,  and  a  stone  to 
stumble  over — a  rock  to  strike  against,  for  those  who  stumble, 
disobeying  the  word — to  which  issue,  they  were  appointed.  "  But 
ye  are  a  chosen  generation,"  etc.,  exalted  to  the  high  honor  of  be- 
ing God's  chosen  people.  The  antithesis  is :  No  believer  in 
Christ  ever  put  to  shame ;  to  all  such  is  real  and  high  honor. 

But  over  against  this,  when  unbelievers  refused  this  stone,  God, 
— following  his  own  wisdom,  not  theirs, — made  it  his  chief  corner- 
stone, and  left  it  for  them  to  stumble  over  since  so  they  would. 
Still  repeating  the  main  points,  he  proceeds  (v.  9):  "Ye  are  exalted 
to  highest  honor"  [this  shows  the  drift  of  thought  in  the  begin- 
ning of  v.  7]  ;  "  ye  are  a  chosen  generation,  a  priesthood  of  kings" 


384  L  PETER. — CHAP.    II. 

(as  in  Exod.  19  :  6):  "a  holy  nation,  a  people  acquired  of  God  to 
be  his  personal  property"  [so  the  original  signifies].  The  old 
Latin,  peculium,  was  the  name  for  one's  personal  property.  In 
this  sense  our  translators  used   the  word  "peculiar" — a  people 

claimed  and  held  of  God  as  his  own  property. That  ye  may 

set  forth  the  virtues,  merits  [aretas]  of  Him  who  hath  called  you 
out  of  darkness  (the  darkness  of  heathenism)  into  his  wonderful 
light;  who  being  once  not  a  people  (of  any  account)  are  now  the 
people  of  God ;  once  not  treated  with  compassion,  but  now  ye  are. 
The  reader  will  notice  that  in  v.  8,  instead  of  translating — 
"stumble  at  the  word,  being  disobedient,"  I  have  it — "who  stum- 
ble, disobeying  the  word."  Their  unbelief  of  the  word  was  the 
cause  of  their  stumbling  over  that  chief  corner-stone  to  their  de- 
struction. To  this  stumbling  and  fall,  their  unbelief  destined, 
doomed  them  hopelessly.  There  can  be  no  help  for  men  who  will 
not  have  the  help  for  salvation  provided  for  them  in  God's  own  Son. 

11.  Dearly  beloved,  I  beseech  you  as  strangers  and  pil- 
grims, abstain  from  fleshly  lusts,  which  war  against  the  soul : 

12.  Having  your  conversation  honest  among  the  Gentiles : 
that,  whereas  they  speak  against  you  as  evil-doers,  they  may 
by  your  good  works,  which  they  shall  behold,  glorify  God  in 
the  day  of  visitation. 

"Strangers  and  pilgrims,"  here  means  something  more  and 
other  than  Jews  living  in  Pontus  rather  than  Judea,  It  means 
— men  of  another  and  better  country,  merely  staying  for  a  little 
time  in  this  foreign  land,  not  their  home.  It  is  as  citizens  of  the 
heavenly  world  rather  than  as  men  whose  home  and  treasure  and 
interests  are  of  this  world,  that  he  addresses  them  here.  As  such, 
let  them  abstain — hold  themselves  by  positive  self-control  aloof 
from  those  lusts  of  the  flesh  which  war  against  the  soul— always 
antagonistic  to  the  soul's  true  interests — which  (as  Bcngel  says) 
"  no? only  hinder  but  attack."  Alas,  that  men  who  would  fight  a 
foreign  enemy  to  the  death  should  nurse  an  indwelling  foe  to  their 
ensnarcment  and  ruin.  IIow  little  they  realize  that;  these  lusts  of 
the  flesh  are  fatally  hostile  to  the  soul ! 

Let  them  maintain  an  honorable,  upright  course  of  life  fimong 
the  Gentiles  that  in  what  point  soever  [not  "  whereas,"  but 
wherein]  they  speak  against  you  as  evil-doers,  they  may,  by  rea- 
son of  your  works  which  they  see,  glorify  God  in  the  day  of  vis- 
itation. The  form  of  Peter's  expression  is  quite  unique.  Instead 
of  saying,  beholding  your  good  works,  they  shall  glorify  God  (as 
we  might  expect),  he  says,  P'rom  (or  uiU  of)  tha  good  works  [ok] 
thoy,  beholding,  shall  glorify  God,  etc.  The  enforced  conviction 
which  compels  them  to  glorify  God  comes  forth  out  of  Christian 
good  works,  when  men  can  not  but  see  them. 

But  why  does  he  say,  "In  the  day  of  their  visitation?" The 

New  Testament  usage  of  this  phrase  appears  in  Luke  19:  44,  in 
a  food  sense — i.  e.,  the  day  when  God  comes  near  in  mercy,  and 
when  solemn  convictions  of  truth  press  on  human  souls,     hi  tho 


I.   PETER. CHAP.  II.  385 

present  case  such  convictions  are  suggested  by  the  holy  lives 
of  God's  people.  Peter  thinks  of  those  hallowed  moments  when 
blameless  Christian  lives  enforce  conviction  upon  the  ungodly  and 
God  comes  near  for  their  salvation. 

13.  Submit  yourselves  to  every  ordinance  of  man  for  the 
Lord's  sake :  whether  it  be  to  the  king,  as  supreme ; 

14.  Or  unto  governors,  as  unto  them  that  are  sent  by  him 
for  the  punishment  of  evil-doers,  and  for  the  praise  of  them 
that  do  well. 

Those  special  duties  growing  out  of  various  social  and  civil 
relations  fall  under  the  broad  sense  of  the  word  "conversation" 
(v.  12),  which,  as  we  often  have  occasion  to  repeat,  is  by  no  means 
talk,  but  is  life — the  whole  course  of  one's  activities ;  all  the  words 
and  deeds  that  make  up  human  life  in  this  social  world.  The 
writer  now  proceeds  to  expand  them  in  more  full  detail.  "Sub- 
mit to  every  ordinance  of  man;"  but  this  is  not  an  "ordinance" 
in  the  sense  of  a  law  or  statute,  but  rather  an  institution,  an  or- 
ganized civil  government  or  authority.  Literally  his  words  run : 
To  every  creation  of  man — i.  e.,  in  the  line  of  civil  authority,  as 
his  specifications  show;  to  the  king  as  one  over  all;  to  governors 
(his  subordinate  officers)  as  to  men  sent  forth  by  him  for  the 
punishment  of  evil-doers  and  for  the  praise  (reward)  of  well- 
doers. This  he  exhorts  them  to  do  "for  the  Lord's  sake."  For 
conscience  toward  God,  let  them  render  obedience  to  the  civil 
government  of  the  country  in  which  they  sojourned,  nor  think  to 
excuse  themselves  because  they  owed  a  higher  allegiance  to  God. 
Jesus  and  Paul  never  failed  to  inculcate  this  doctrine,  and  to  ob- 
serve it  in  their  life. 

15.  For  so  is  the  will  of  God,  that  with  well-doing  ye  may 
put  to  silence  the  ignorance  of  foolish  men  : 

16.  As  free,  and  not  using  your  liberty  for  a  cloak  of  ma- 
liciousness, but  as  the  servants  of  God. 

Still  expanding  this  thought,  he  urges :  This  is  duty  to  God,  for 
it  is  his  will  that  by  well-doing,  his  people  should  muzzle  the 
mouths  of  senseless  men ;  but  Peter  expresses  himself  with  sin- 
gular felicity.  Having  used  the  Greek  verb  for  muzzle  as  if  he 
would  say  the  mouth,  he  puts  the  object  of  his  verb,  not  mouth, 
but  ignorance — that  by  well-doing  ye  may  shut  up  and  silence  the 
ignorance  of  senseless  men. 

"  As  free."     Free  from  what  ?    Free  in  what  sense  ? On  this 

point  vagueness  of  idea  is  common ;  error  not  infrequent.  Yet 
the  correct  view  is  exceedingly  vital. 

Notice,  therefore,  in  the  outset,  Peter  assumes  that  this  freedom 
of  which  he  speaks  is  a  reality,  not  a  dream  or  an  illusion ;  that 
it  may  be  abused  as  a  cover  and  apology  for  sin,  yet  ought  not  to 
be ;  and  that  it  is  consistent  with  being  the  real  servants  of  God. 

Bearing  these  points  in  mind,  let  us  first  eliminate  some  of 

the  possible,  perhaps  actual  errors,  and  say  negatively : 


386  I.  PETER. — CHAP.   II. 

(1.)  Peter  does  not  mean  free  in  the  sense  of  being  exempt 
from  the  ritual,  burdensome  requisitions  of  the  old  ceremonial 
law.     Nothing  in  the  context  nor  in  these  epistles  looks  that  way. 

Nor  (2)  free  as  opposed  to  a  state  of  personal  slavery.  The 
context  (below  v.  18)  shows  that  some  of  his  contemplated  read- 
ers were  servants,  apparently  in  the  sense  of  slaves. 

Nor  (3)  free  in  the  sense  of  having  no  rights,  and  hence  no 
obligations,  of  citizenship.  This  might  be  thought  supposable, 
since,  being  in  a  foreign  country,  they  were  aliens  rather  than 
citizens,  and  therefore  might  think  themselves  exempt  from  the 
obligations  of  citizenship.  Yet  I  can  not  think  that  the  morality 
of  the  gospel  ever  favored  such  a  notion  of  license  or  exemption 
from  legitimate  obedience  to  civil  law. 

Nor  (4)  did  he  mean  free,  in  the  ideal,  possibly  supposable  sense 
that  in  becoming  a  Christian,  one  ceases  to  be  a  subject  of  civil 
government — ?.  c,  that  the  moment  he  recognizes  his  allegiance 
to  the  true  God,  all  his  allegiance  to  human  government  becomes 
null  and  void.  This  doctrine  is  more  than  dangerous ;  it  is  posi- 
tively pernicious : — is  more  than  questionable  theoretically,  for  it 
is  certainly  and  terribly  fixlse.  Neither  Jesus  nor  his  apostles 
ever  gave  it  the  least  sanction. 

(5.)  And  yet  again,  he  did  not  mean  "free"  in  the  metaphys- 
ical sense  of  the  freedom  of  the  human  will.  In  this  sense  it 
might  be  very  true  that  they  were  free;  but  so  also  were  all  other 
men  no  less.  This  freedom,  therefore,  was  no  peculiarity  of 
theirs,  and  is  not  relevant  here. 

On  the  positive  side,  our  guiding  thread  to  the  true  sense  must 
be  sought  in  the  discussions  had  between  Jesus  and  the  Jews  of 
his  time,  as  in  John  8 :  32-36 — a  discussion  which  Peter's  Jewish 
readers  could  not  well  ignore  or  overlook.  Jesus  said  to  certain 
Jews  who  believed  on  him:  "If  ye  continue  in  my  words,  then 
are  ye  my  disciples  indeed ;  and  ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the 
truth  shall  make  you  free."  They  answered  him  :  "  We  be  Abra- 
ham's seed  and  were  never  in  bondage  to  any  man.  How  sayest 
thou.  Ye  shall  be  made  free?"  "Jesus  answered  them,  Verily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  you.  Whosoever  committcth  sin  is  the  servant 
of  sin.  If  the  Son  shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall  be  free  indeed." 
The  central  idea  is:  He  is  the  free  man  whom  the  truth  makes 
free.  Error  and  delusion,  admitted  into  human  souls  and  loved, 
bring  them  into  bondage.  So  Peter  himself  taught  (2  Pet.  2 :  19) : 
"  While  they  (the  folse  teachers)  promise  them  liberty,  they  them- 
selves are  the  servants  [slaves]  of  corruption  ;  for  of  whom  a  man 
is  overcome,  of  the  same  is  he  brought  into  bondage."  Conse- 
quently the  light  and  the  love  of  truth,  honestly  welcomed  and 
obeyed,  brings  to  man  the  highest  freedom  he  can  know.  It  dx^s 
not  make  him  independent  of  God;  he  needs  no  such  independ- 
ence to  be  supremely  blessed.  Perfect  obedience  to  God's  will  is 
his  supreme  wi.sdom,  and  brings  with  it  a  sense  of  freedom  from 
all  bondage  such  as  is  base,  galling,  enslaving;  in  short,  it  makes 
him/rce  in  the  very  highest  sense  in  which  a  finite  being  can  bo 


I.  PETER. CHAP.  II.  387 

free. Of  this  freedom  Peter  might  well  say:  Take  care  to  not 

abuse  it  as  a  shield,  cover,  apology,  for  maliciousness  ;  but  remem- 
ber that  ye  are  servants  of  God.  Higher  honor  than  this  service, 
ye  never  need  crave ;  ye  never  can  have. 

17.  Honor  all  men.  Love  the  brotherhood.  Fear  God. 
Honor  the  king. 

The  terseness  and  strength  of  these  precepts  are  admirable. 
Easily  remembered,  they  are  also  full  of  sense  and  vrisdom,  pregnant 
with  the  highest  elements  of  Christian  morality.  They  are  also 
pertinent  to  his  line  of  thought  in  this  connection: — Be  not  so 
elated  with  your  noble  freedom  as  the  sons  of  the  Lord  Almighty 
that  ye  can  look  down  contemptuously  upon  men  less  honored 
of  God ;  but  see  that  ye  accord  due  honor  and  deference  to  all 
men,    especially    to    men    bearing    the   responsibilities    of    civil 

authority. Love  the  brotherhood,  as  behooves  children  of  the 

same  royal  family.  Reverence  God.  Honor  the  king,  for  kings 
hold  civil  authority  under  God.  This  is  the  doctrine  of  apostolic 
Christianity.     (See  Paul,  Eom.  13.) 

18.  Servants,  he  subject  to  your  masters  with  all  fear;  not 
only  to  the  good  and  gentle,  but  also  to  the  froward. 

19.  For  this  is  thank-worthy,  if  a  man  for  conscience  to- 
ward God  endure  grief,  suffering  wrongfully. 

20.  For  what  glory  is  it,  if,  when  ye  be  buffeted  for 
your  faults,  ye  shall  take  it  patiently?  but  if,  when  ye  do 
well,  and  suffer  for  it,  ye  take  it  patiently,  this  is  acceptable 
with  God. 

From  this  verse  onward  to  3 :  7,  the  apostle  gives  specific  in- 
structions to  special  classes ;  first,  to  servants.  In  their  case  the 
first  duty  would  be  submissiveness.  By  civil  authority  they  Avere 
under  control.  Their  wisdom  and  Christian  duty  lay  in  bowing 
to  the  force  of  circumstances,  accepting  their  lot  as,  though  hard, 
yet  permitted  under  divine  providence.  In  their  sphere  they 
might  adorn  the  gospel  and  might  please  God — both  being  objects 
worthy  of  their  supreme  endeavor — worthy  of  their  immortal 
nature. But  from  the  fact  that  submission  under  slavery  be- 
came a  Christian  duty,  let  no  one  leap  to  the  conclusion  that  God 
purposely  indorsed  slavery  with  his  approbation.  For  this  sort 
of  argument  Would  prove  that  he  pre-eminently  approved  tlie 
way  of  the  "  froward  " — the  crooked  (as  the  word  means) — the 
crabbed,  savage,  ugly,  tyrannical  master ;  for  submission  to  such 
is  represented  as  peculiarly  acceptable  to  God !  Especially  if 
their  course  was  utterly  unjust,  and  the  servant  had  done  nothing 
wrong  to  provoke  it. 

This  is  the  point  chiefly  urged  by  the  apostle :  Let  the  Chris- 
tian servant  learn  to  endure  the  utmost  abuse  with  never-flagging 
patience.     Let  it  be  his  glory  to  suffer  wrong.     Let  him  make  it 


388  I.  PETEK. — CHAP.  II. 

a  point  of  conscience  toward  God,  not  "because  he  assumes  that 
God  approves  the  tyranny  and  wrong  under  which  he  suffers; 
but  because  this  is  the  lot  to  which,  under  the  force  of  circum- 
stances ])eyond  his  control,  he  is  sultjccted,  and  in  this  lot  his 
duty  to  God  lies  in  quiet,  unresisting  submission  and  patient  en- 
durance. So  suff(;ring  wrong,  his  reward  shall  be  of  God.  The 
vengeance,  the  retribution  due  to  his  cruel,  guilty  master,  he 
may  leave — where  all  vengeance  should  be  left — to  God  alone. 
(See  Kom.  12:  19.) 

21.  For  even  hereunto  were  ye  called:  because  Christ 
also  suffered  for  us,  leaving  us  an  example,  that  ye  should 
follow  his  steps : 

22.  Who  did  no  sin,  neither  was  guile  found  in  his  mouth : 

23.  Who,  when  he  w'as  reviled,  reviled  not  again;  when 
he  suffered,  he  threatened  not;  but  committed  himself  to  him 
that  judgeth  righteously; 

Called  to  become  Christians — followers  of  Christ — this  calling, 
by  the  force  of  Christ's  example,  carried  with  it  all  this  patient 
endurance  of  inflicted  wrong  because  Christ  also  suffered  for  you 
(so  the  better  text  ?/oii  instead  of  "us"),  leaving  to  you  an  ex- 
ample that  ye  should  follow  his  steps — follow  close  upon  and 
after  his  steps'^— as  the  original  signifies. 

"Who  did  no  sin"  in  deed  or  in  Avord — special  emphasis  lying 
here  upon  his  spoken  words.  Being  reviled,  he  never  reviled 
back  in  reply ;  under  suffering,  never  threatened,  although  legions 
of  angels  were  at  his  command,  ready  to  apply  their  overwhelm- 
ing powers  for  his  defense.  But  Jesus  meekly  committed  him- 
self to  the  great  God  who  judges  righteously, — in  this,  making 
himself  a  glorious  example  for  all  his  suffering,  wronged,  op- 
pressed children. 

24.  Who  his  own  self  bare  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on 
the  tree,  that  we,  beiug  dead  to  sins,  should  live  unto 
righteousness :  by  whose  stripes  ye  were  healed. 

25.  For  ye  were  as  sheep  going  astray;  but  are  now  re- 
turned to  the  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  your  souls. 

In  developing  Christ's  sufferings,  Peter  bears  his  readers  on- 
ward to  tiiat  last  and  chief  hour  of  terrible  suffering,  endured  for 
us,  when  he  bore  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  cross — Peter's 
o))ject  being  specially  to  })ring  out  the  moral  bearing  of  that 
suffering  death  as  a  motive  power  unto  a  holy  life — to  the  end 

that  being  dead  to   sin,  we   might  live  unto  righteousness. In 

this  phrase,  the  sense  "  l)eing  dead,"  comes  from  the  Greek  word 
rather  by  implication  than  as  belonging  to  the  word  legitimately. 
The  word  signifies — having  become  free  from  sin ;  coming  into 
a  state  of  entire  separation  from  it.  Then  follows  the  further 
duty — that  of  living  unto  righteousness;    making   thia   the  one 


I.   PETER. — CHAP.   III.  389 

supreme  end  of  their  life. By  whose   stripe  ye  have  healing. 

The  wound  upon  him  brings  healing  to  you.  So  mysteriously 
wonderful  are  God's  ways  of  redemption  through  the  cross  of  his 

Son! For   ye   were  wanderers  like  sheep;  but  ye  have  now 

returned  to  the  one  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  your  souls  who 
keeps  the  fold,  who  laid  down  his  life  for  his  sheep;  but  now 
lives  forever,  their  Shepherd,  their  loving  Friend  and  Savior. 


CHAPTER   IIT. 


Continuing  his  instructions  to  special  classes,  he  addresses 
wives  (1-6);  husbands  (7);  then  all  classes  with  general  exhorta- 
tions as  to  their  spirit  (8,  9)  and  conduct  (10,  11);  enforcing  all 
by  the  thought  of  a  present  God  who  discriminates  for  the  good 
and  against  the  evil  (12,  13).  To  suffer  for  righteousness — 
blessed  (14).  Be  ever  ready  to  give  meekly  the  ground  of  your 
gospel  hope  (15),  with  a  good  conscience  and  an  upright  life, 
confounding  opposers  (16);  suffering  for  well  doing  and  not  for 
ill  (17);  all  which  is  enforced  by  the  high  example  of  Christ, 
of  which  very  broad  and  comprehensive  views  are  taken  (18-20). 
The  allusion  to  the  deluge  suggests  baptism,  from  which  he  passes 
on  to  the  resurrection,  ascension  and  supreme  exaltation  of  Jesus 
in  heaven  (21,  22). 

1.  Likewise,  ye  wives,  be  in  subjection  to  your  own  hus- 
bands; that,  if  any  obey  not  the  Avord,  they  also  may  with- 
out the  word  be  won  by  the  conversation  of  the  wives ; 

2.  While  they  behold  your  chaste  conversation  coupled 
with  fear. 

At  the  head  of  specific  directions  to  wives,  he  places  subjection 
to  their  husbands,  which  as  he  subsequently  explains  it,  he  would 
not  have  servile,  but  respectful  (v.  2,  6).  Assuming  that  in 
many  cases  these  husbands  might  be  unbelievers,  not  persuaded 
to  faith  and  obedience  in  respect  to  the  divine  word,  he  suggests 
that  without  the  word  they  may  be  won  over  by  the  godly  Hie  of 
their  wives  as  they  behold  from  day  to  day  their  pure  and  re- 
spectful deportment. Here  as  everywhere  in   the   Scriptures, 

the  word  "  conversation"  signifies,  not  talk  merely,  by  any  means, 

but  the  entire  life  and  spmt. "With   fear'     should   not  be 

pressed  farther  thaa  a  modest,  respectful  bearing.  Christianity 
never  asks  of  the  wife  the  spirit  of  servile,  slavish  fear.  It 
peremptorily  forbids  the  husband  to  excite  fear  of  that  sort. 


390  I.  PETER. — CHAP.    III. 

3.  Whose  adorning,  let  it  not  be  that  outward  adorniivg  of 
plaiting  the  hair,  and  of  wearing  of  gold,  or  of  putting  on  of 
apparel; 

4.  But  let  it  he  the  hidden  man  of  the  heart,  in  that  which 
is  not  corruptible,  even  the  ornament  of  a  meek  and  quiet 
spirit,  which  is  in  the  sight  of  God  of  great  price, 

Instruction  to  wives  as  to  practical  life  can  not  omit  the  adorn- 
ment of  the  person.  Ever  since  human  nature  has  been  in  the 
world,  adorning  the  person  has  been  a  strong  passion  in  the  fe- 
male sex,  due  in  part  (its  better  part)  to  a  love  of  the  beautiful; 
in  part  to  their  relation  to  the  other  sex.  The  noticeable  thing 
here  is  the  delicate  discretion  and  great  wisdom  of  Peter  in  labor- 
ing to  regulate  and  curb  this  passion  "by  the  expulsive  power  of 
a  higher  aflfection."  He  does  not  decry  beauty ;  would  not,  by 
any  means,  go  against  adornment,  but  says — Let  it  not  be  first 
and  chiefly,  of  the  outer  person,  but  rather,  of  the  inner  soul. 
The  soul  takes  on  a  polish  that  never  wears  oflP— a  beauty  that 
never  fades,  a  deep  and  enduring  adornment  which  even  God 
holds  in  high  esteem.  The  adorning  he  would  not  have  is  de- 
scribed in  quite  plain  terms — braided  hair,  wearing  gold  jewelry, 
apparel  put  on  in  keeping  with  the  other  specifications;  for  we 
can  not  suppose  that  he  discards  clothing  altogether.  He  con- 
demns only  apparel  of  such  quality  and  so  put  on  as  to  class  it- 
self with  plaited  hair  and  jewelry. The  adorning  recommended 

is  that  of  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit.  Meekness  belongs  to  the  af- 
fections ;  quietness  to  the  deportment.  The  meek  woman  is  gen- 
tle in  spirit;  the  quiet  is   self-controlled   in  manner. It  is  a 

marvelously  telling  and  forceful  consideration  (for  all  who  can 
and  will  appreciate  it)  that  such  adorning  is  held  at  a  high  price 
before  God ! 

TJie  following  translation  of  these  verses  is  suggested  as  being 
true  to  the  original:  "  Whose  adorning — let  it  not  be  of  the  out- 
side— braided  hair;  gold  put  on;  raiment  worn;  but  the  inner 
manhood  of  the  heart,  the  imperishable  beauty  of  the  meek  and 
quiet  spirit  which  in  God's  sight  is  very  precious." 

5.  For  after  this  manner  in  the  old  time  the  holy  women 
also,  who  trusted  in  God,  adorned  themselves,  being  in  sub- 
jection unto  their  own  husbands : 

6.  Even  as  Sarah  obeyed  Abraham,  calling  him  lord: 
whose  daughters  ye  are,  as  long  as  ye  do  well,  and  are  not 
afraid  with  any  amazement. 

To  his  Jewish  sisters  who  not  only  received  but  held  in  high 
esteem  the  Old  Testament  history,  it  was  very  pertinent  to  enforce 
liis  exhortation  by  an  appeal  to  the  example  of  Sarah  (Gen.  18: 
12).  The  spirit  of  Sarah  was  not  always  unexceptionable ;  but 
tiic  name  "lord"  used  of  her  husband,  recognized  her  subjection, 
while  at  the  same  time  her  respect  and  deference  for  him  fell 


I.    PETEE. — CPIAP.  III.  391 

very  noticeably  short  of  "amazement,"  i.  e.,  trepidation,  terror, 
as  the  Greek  word  si^^nifies.  Her  example  was  good  both  for  the 
quality  of  her  fear,  and  for  its  quantity.  It  was  a  deferential  re- 
spect ;  it  was  not  an  unwomanly  and  unwifely  servility,  amount- 
ing to  amazement,  terror. 

7.  Likewise,  ye  husbands,  dwell  with  them  according  to 
knowledge,  giving  honor  unto  the  wife,  as  unto  the  weaker 
vessel,  and  as  being  heirs  together  of  the  grace  of  life  ;  that 
your  prayers  be  not  hindered. 

In  this  verse  our  English  translation  foils  to  represent  the 
original  in  respect  to  the  grammatical  relation  of  the  several 
clauses.  Peter  meant  to  say — dwelling  according  to  your  better 
knowledge  with  the  wife  as  the  weaker  vessel;  giving  honor  to 
wives  as  fellow-heirs  of  the  grace  of  life.  The  husband  is  as- 
sumed to  have   better  knowledge,  the  opportunities  of  men  for 

culture  being  much  superior  to  those  of  women. It  is  supposed 

to  be  in  imitation  of  the  later  Hebrew  usage  that  the  wife  is 
spoken  of  as  a  "vessel."  (See  the  same  usage  in  1  Thess.  4:4.) 
It  deserves  special  notice  that  Christianity  recognizes  the  full  and 
true  humanity  of  woman  by  representing  her  as  a  fellow-heir  of 
immortal  life  and  of  all  its  blessings.  This  recognition  lifts  her 
at  once  from  the  low  plane  of  a  mere  animal,  provided  for  the 
convenience  of  the  lords  of  creation.  No  less  immortal  than  the 
ruling  sex ;  no  less  honored  of  God  in  the  provisions  for  her  sal- 
vation; in  all  the  most  vital  qualities  and  high  responsibilities  of 
human  nature,  she  falls  no  whit  below  her  father,  husband,  sons. 
The  motive  which  urges  the  husband  to  live  with  his  wife  ac- 
cording to  his  better  knowledge  and  to  accord  her  due  honor  as 
to  one  equally  with  himself  an  heir  to  immortal  blessedness,  is 
that  "their  prayers  be  not  hindered" — so  obstructed  as  never  to 
reach  the  ear  of  God,  and  of  course  never  to  avail  any  thing  as 
prayer.  Let  them  see  to  it  that  all  the  kindly  and  precious  rela- 
tions of  husband  and  wife  be  sustained  accordisg  to  their  Chris- 
tian knowledge  and  with  all  due  honor  to  woman,  as  they  would 
have  the  ear  of  God  in  their  united  prayers, 

8.  Finally,  he  ye  all  of  one  mind,  having  compassion  one 
of  another;  love  as  bi»ethren,  be  pitiful,  be  courteous : 

9.  Not  rendering  evil  for  evil,  or  railing  for  railing :  but 
contrariwise  blessing;  knowing  that  ye  are  thereunto  called, 
that  ye  should  inherit  a  blessing. 

The  precept — "Be  ye  all  of  one  mind,"  raises  questions  of  real 
importance: — e.  g.,  whether  it  relates  to  opinions,  or  mainly  if 
not  only,  to  purposes  and  aims  of  Christian  life.  In  the  latter 
sense,  all  Christians  should  manifestly  be  one;  for  serving  God 
is  one  thing  in  purpose  and  in  aim,  and  one  only.  But  as  to 
opinions,  views  of  truth  in  all  minutest  shades,  how  shall  minds 


392  I.    PETER. — CHAP.    III. 

working  freely  be  always  sure  of  forming  the  same  opinions  and 
reaching  the  same  conclusions  ?  Moreover,  how  far  may  we  suppose 
that  holding  the  same  opinions  in  this  sense  is  divinely  enjoined  ? 
Christian  brethren  may  doubtless  very  properly  aim  to  think 
alike,  and  cultivate  harmony  of  opinion  ;  but  yet  the  wiser  regu- 
lation of  free  thought  would  seem  to  be  to  cultivate  perfect  can- 
dor;  to  avoid  prejudice  ;  to  seek  truth  only ;  and  to  invoke  and 
follow  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  truth.  It  is  reasonable  to  as- 
sume, however,  that  the  apostle's  thought  is  not  upon  all  minut- 
est shades  of  opinion  on  trivial  points,  but  rather  upon  the  vital 
facts  and  truths  of  Christianity.  In  regard  to  these  the  injunc- 
tion to  be  of  the  same  mind  has  momentous  reason  underlying 
it,  and  does  not  conflict  with  legitimate  freedom  of  human 
thought ;  for  a  true  heart  and  a  reasonably  fair  intellect  insure 

all  the  unity  of  vi^ws  that  can  be  desired. Be  sympathetic;  be 

lovers  of  the  brethren ;  compassionate ;  and  of  humble  spirit — 
this  being  the  sense  of  the  last  Greek  word  as  we  have  it  in  the 
improved  text.* 

Not  rendering  evil  to  others  for  evil  done  you  by  them,  nor 
railing  against  railing — this  word  denoting  reproachful  language, 
harsh,  fault-finding,  scurrilous.  Let  not  such  words  be  retorted 
back,  nor  the  spirit  of  them  be  indulged  at  all.  But  on  the  con- 
trary, give  even  such  men  your  blessing ;  express  your  good  will 

in  kindness  and  love. Moreover,  let  the  reason  given  for  this 

precept  be  carefully  noted  ;  viz.,  because  for  this  purpose  were  ye 
called  (?".  e.  of  God  into  his  kingdom),  that  ye  might  inherit  bless- 
ing. Men  called  by  God  to  inherit  blessings  so  exceedingly  rich 
and  so  utterly  undeserved  should  be  very  free  to  dispense  their 
blessings  of  good-will  and  favor  upon  their  fellow-men,  evermore 
doing  them  all  the  good  they  can;  manifesting  every-where  and 
to  the  basest  and  most  abusive  of  men,  the  same  loving,  generous, 
forgiving  spirit  which  God  has  so  lavishly  manifested  toward 
them.  Why  not?  If  they  have  learned  to  appreciate  how  much 
undeserved  mercy  and  blessing  are  worth  to  their  own  souls,  why 
should  they  not  impart  to  others  somewhat  of  the  same  sunshine 
of  love  which  has  brought  peace  and  joy  into  their  own  souls  ? 
Called  to  receive  such  blessings,  let  them  feel  that  they,  too,  should 
have  blessings  to  give,  even  to  those  who  give  them  only  evil  and 

railing. The  corrected  text  omits  "  knowing."    The  sense  does 

not  require  it. On  the  contrary,  express  your  hearty  good-will 

("  blessing")  because  ye  were  called  unto  God  to  receive  bless- 
ings. 

10.  For  he  that  will  love  life,  and  sec  c:ood  clays,  let  him 
refrain  his  tongue  from  evil,  and  his  lips  that  they  speak  no 
guile: 

11.  Let  him  eschew  evil,  and  do  good;  let  him  seek 
peace,  and  ensue  it. 

*  Not  philojdironos  but  tapeinophronoi?. 


I.    PETER. — CHAP.  III.  393 

For  let  him  who  wills  to  love  life  (setting  his  heart  strongly 
upon  it),  and  to  see  good  days,  cease  his  tongue  {make  it  cease) 
from  evil,  etc.  Let  him  incline  away  from  evil ;  lean  powerfully 
against  it;    brace  himself  with   his  might  against  wrong-doing. 

"  Peace,"    in  the   broad   sense,   good   to  men  generally,   all 

blessings.  Manifestly  Peter's  thought  follows  those  rich  words 
of  the  Psalmist  (Ps.  34:  12-16). 

"What  man  is  he  that  desireth  life,  and  loveth  many  days, 
that  he  may  see  good  ? 

"Keep  thy  tongue  from  evil,  and  thy  lips  from  speaking  guile. 

"Depart  from  evil,  and  do  good  ;  seek  peace,  and  pursue  it. 

"The  eyes  of  the  Lord  are  upon  the  righteous,  and  his  ears 
are  open  unto  their  cry, 

"The  face  of  the  Lord  is  against  them  that  do  evil,  to  cut  off 
the  remembrance  of  them  from  the  earth." 

12.  For  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  are  over  the  righteous,  and 
his  ears  are  open  unto  their  prayers :  but  the  face  of  the  Lord 
is  against  them  that  do  evil. 

The  underlying  doctrine  here — one  of  exceedingly  vital  moment 
— is :  If  a  man  will  only  live  so  that  he  can  pray  acceptably,  and 
will  have  all  right  between  himself  and  God,  he  need  be  anxious 
for  nothing.  God's  present  love  and  mighty  hand  will  make  all 
well  for  him.  What  more  or  better  can  he  need  than  the  loving 
eye  and  almighty  arm  of  God  pledged  in  his  behalf? 

13.  And  who  is  he  that  wdll  harm  you,  if  ye  be  followers 
of  that  which  is  good? 

14.  But  and  if  ye  suffer  for  righteousness'  sake,  happy  are 
ye :  and  be  not  afraid  of  their  terror,  neither  be  troubled ; 

15.  But  sanctify  the  Lord  God  in  your  hearts :  and  be  ready 
always  to  give  an  answer  to  every  man  that  asketh  you  a 
reason  of  the  hope  that  is  in  you  with  meekness  and  fear : 

16.  Having  a  good  conscience:  that,  whereas  they  speak 
evil  of  you,  as  of  evil-doers,  they  may  be  ashamed  that 
falsely  accuse  your  good  conversation  in  Christ. 

17.  For  it  is  better,  if  the  will  of  God  be  so,  that  ye  suf- 
fer for  well  doing  than  for  evil  doing. 

"Followers  of  that  which  is  good;" — but  the  improved  text 
gives  us  instead  of  "  followers  "  the  word  zealous ;  if  ye  become 

earnestly  zealous  for  the  good — (zelotai). Suffer  for  the  sake 

of  righteousness — for  its  cause  and  interests — the  supposition 
being,  moreover,  that  ye  are  personally  righteous  also.  Then  are 
ye  blessed.  Then,  fear  ye  not  their  fear — the  fear  they  would 
fain  inspire ;  or,  perhaps,  fear  ye  not  the  things  they  have  reason 
to  fear.     Nor  be  troubled  by  any  threats  from  them. 


394  I.   PETER. — CHAP.  III. 

"Bat  sanctify  the  Lord  Christ  (instead  of  "God"  in  the  hotter 
text)  in  your  hearts."     Let  your  heart  be  pure  toward  the  Lord 

Jesus,  aiming  supremely  to  please  him. "  The  hope  that  is  in 

you"  must  be  the  gospel  hope,  resting  on  its  legitimate  evidence. 
The  supposition  is  that  the  questioners  are  unbelievers,  and  that 
they  ask — Why  do  you  receive  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  your  Messiah 
and  Savior?  Be  ready  always  to  give  an  answer  meekly  (not 
proudly)  and  with  due  respect  to  the  party  who  asks  of  you  your 
reasons  for  this  gospel  hope. 

"  Having  a  good  conscience,"  i.  e.,  maintaining,  preserving  it 
by  carefully  enlightening  your  mind  as  to  duty  and  by  scrupu- 
lously observing  the  decisions  of  your  moral  sense. "That" 

ivherein  [not  "whereas"] — but  in  all  those  particulars  in  which 
they  reproach  and  revile  your  blameless  Christian  life,  they  may 
be  put  to  shame.     The  supposition   is  that  bad  men  revile  this 

blameless  life,  and  are  therein  put  to  shame. "Conversation" 

here  as  ever  in  the  broad   sense — the  whole   Christian   life. 

For  if  it  be  the  will  of  God  that  ye  should  suffer,  let  it  be  for 
doing  well ;  not  for  doing  ill.  The  difference  is  all  but  infinite. 
To  suffer  for  ill-doing  is  fearful;  the  doing  of  ill  is  of  all  things 
most  to  be  deplored :  but  suffering  for  doing  well  is  an  evil  of  the 
least  imaginable  account;  for  in  this  case  you  are  sure  to  have 
the  infinite  God  on  your  side.  Think,  moreover,  of  the  wonder- 
ful example  of  Jesus  Christ  in  this  respect — which  I  must  now 
proceed  to  place  before  you. 

18.  For  Christ  also  hath  once  suffered  for  sins,  the  just 
for  the  unjust,  that  he  might  bring  us  to  God,  being  put  to 
death  in  the  flesh,  but  quickened  by  the  Spirit: 

19.  By  which  also  he  went  and  preached  unto  the  spirits 
in  prison ; 

20.  Which  sometime  were  disobedient,  when  once  the 
long  suffering  of  God  waited  in  the  days  of  Noah,  while  the 
ark  was  a  prcpaiing,  wdierein  few,  that  is,  eight  souls  were 
saved  by  water. 

That  this  passage  involves  difficulties,  no  sensible  critic  will 
deny :  that  it  has  grave  importance,  all  sensible  readers  will 
readily  see.  It  would  be  unpardonable,  therefore,  to  pass  it  with 
only  cursory  or  superficial  attention. 

To  open  the  subject  I  begin  with  stating  the  two  constructions 
and  interpretations  between  which  our  choice  must  be  made. 
The  first  which  I  name  has   been  adopted  very  extensively  and 

from  quite   early  times. The    second,   I   advocate    because  I 

believe  it  to  be  true;  and  being  true,  of  exceedingly  vital 
moment. 

These  theories  may  be  readily   presented  by  means  of  a  free 

paraphrase. The  first  thus  : — Christ  Avas  put  to  death  in  the 

flesh,  but  made  alive  by  the  S{)irit — by  Avhich,  after  his  death  and 
before   his  resurrection,    he    descended    into    Ihides    and    there 


I.  PETER. — CHAP.    III.  395 

preached  to  the  imprisoned  souls  who  -were  disobedient  at  the 
time  -when  God's  long-suffering  waited  on  guilty  men  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  years  while  Noah  was  preparing  the  ark. 

The  second  thus  : — Put  to  death  as  to  the  flesh,  but  imbued 
with  glorious  life  and  energy  through  the  Spirit — in  which  Spirit, 
going  forth  upon  the  earth,  he  preached  through  Noah  to  those 
imprisoned  spirits  then  unbelieving  and  disobedient  when  God's 
long-suifering  was  waiting  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  next 
preceding  the  flood. 

It  will  be  seen  that  under  the  former,  Christ  did  this  preach- 
ing in  person;  during  the  period  between  his  death  and  resur- 
rection ;  to  the  unbelieving  generation  swept  off"  by  the  flood ; 
who,  at  the  time  of  his  preaching,  were  imprisoned  spirits  await- 
ing the  final  judgment. 

Under  the  latter  construction,  he  preached  mstrumentally 
through  Noah  whom  Peter  elsewhere  (2  Peter  2  :  5)  has  in  mind  as 
"  a  preacher  of  righteousness,"  using  the  same  word  for  "  preach  " 
there  as  here.  As  to  its  spiritual  power,  this  preaching  was  by 
and  through  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  Scripture  narrative  making 
special  mention,  and  indeed  its  Jirst  definite  mention,  of  the  di- 
vine Spirit's  work  on  human  souls  at  that  very  period:  "My 
Spirit  shall  not  always  strive  with  man"  (Gen.  6  :  3). The  par- 
ticiple translated  "  disobedient,"  describes  their  moral  attitude  in 
Noah's  time,  during  which  time  this  preaching  with  the  Spirit's 
power  attending,  was  done. 

Under  this  construction  there  is  here  no  descending  into 
Hades ;  no  preaching  by  Christ  in  person  to  spirits  long  dead 
and  in  prison ;  and  consequently,  no  light  thrown  upon  a  suppos- 
able  new  moral  administration  for  one  or  more  seasons  of 
resumed  probation. 

Which  of  these  two  constructions  and  interpretations  is  the 
trne  one'? 

1.  As  to  the  strongly  antithetic  and  even  contrasted  words — 
"  Being  put  to  death  in  the  flesh,  but  quickened  by  the  Spirit" — 
let  it  be  noted  that  their  contrast  is  not  merely  between  death 
and  life  (by  resurrection),  but  yet  more  definitely,  between  weak- 
ness and  power.  Indeed  herein  lies  mainly  the  force  of  the  case 
as  an  example  to  sufiering  Christians:  Fear  ye  not  weakness,  suf- 
fering, torture;  for  over  against  this,  as  ye  may  see  in  the  case  of 
your  Lord,  lie  glory,  power,  efiiciency  for  the  salvation  of  men, 
exaltation  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father. The  word,  "  quick- 
ened " — more  literally  made  alive,  endowed  with  amazing  power 
(^wo7roi»70£t(j),  is  used  frequently  in  the  New  Testament,  and  almost 
exclusively  in  this  strong  sense,  for  the  gift  of  glorious  life-poioer^ 
manifested  in  raising  dead  souls  to  spiritual  life  in  God;  e.  g., 
John  5:  21  and  6  :  63,  Romans  8  :  11,  Eph.  1  :  19,  20;  2  Cor. 
3:6.     In  several  passages,  it  denotes  simple  resurrection  power 

in  reference  to  the  body. In  this  connection,  Peter  apparently 

has  in  mind  this  whole  group  of  ideas  respecting  Christ  as  en- 
dowed with  deathless  energy  through  the  Spirit,  including  his  re- 


396  I.   PETER. — CHAP.  III. 

surrection  by  the  Spirit's  power  (as  in  Rom.  1:4);  his  indue- 
ment  with  the  spiritual  forces  of  the  Holy  Ghost  for  the  great 
redemptive  work  of  human  salvation  through  the  truth,  and  finally, 

his  exaltation  to  the  right  hand  of  the  Father. This  broad, 

compreheiisive  view  of  the  powers  granted  to  Christ  through  the 
Spirit  is  important,  not  to  say  vital,  to  the  just  apprehension  of 
our  passage. 

Of  course,  this  construction  rules  out  the  utterly  inadmissible 
•  sense  put  by  some  upon  the  word  "spirit"  here;  viz.,  put  to  death 
in  respect  to  the  flesh  (his  body),  but  made  alive  in  respect  to  his 
spirit  (soul); — for  Jesus  was  never  dead  as  to  his  soul.  Plainly, 
therefore,  this  antithesis  can  not  lie  between  death  to  his  body  and 
mere  life  to  his  soul. 

Closely  following  the  original,  we  may  paraphrase  the  passage 
thus  :  "  In  which  Spirit  {i.  e.,  in  and  by  means  of  this  gift  of  the 
divine  Spirit),  he  also,  going  forth,  preached  (righteousness)  to  the 
imprisoned  spirits,  they  being  then  (and  previously)  disobedient 
in  that  ancient  time  when  God's  long  sufiering  was  waiting 
in  the  days  of  Noah.— — Here  the  Greek  word  for  "  disobe- 
dient" is  the  aorist  participle  without  the  article,  qualifying  the 
word  "spirits"  which  has  the  article.  Our  English  version — 
"which  sometime  were  disobedient" — is  entirely  wrong,  and  can 
not  be  justified  upon  the  principles  of  Greek  grammar. 

This  involves  an  examination  of  the  laws  and  usage  of  the  Greek 
participle  when  used  with  and  when  used  without  the  article  pre- 
ceding it. Aware  that  this  problem  involves  nice  distinctions, 

not  easily  made  clear  to  minds  unftimiliar  with  the  terms  and  prin- 
ciples of  grammar,  I  shall  aim  to  make  my  meaning  clear,  as  far 
as  possible,  not  so  much  by  the  use  of  technical  terms  understood 
only  by  profound  grammarians,  as  by  the  help  of  illustrative  ex- 
amples. 

The  question  is  one,  not  of  the  dictionary  but  of  the  grammar; 
not  of  the  sense  of  this  participle—"  disobedient"— but  of  its  gram- 
matical relations. If  the  English  translation— "  which  some- 
time were  disobedient,"  were  right,  the  passage  might  be  inter- 
preted to  mean  that  these  imprisoned  spirits  were  "disobedient" 
three  thousand  years  before  Christ  died  and  went  to  Hades  to 
preach  to  them.  Their  disobedience  might  have  been  in  no  sense 
the  occasion  or  reason  of  his  going.  The  words—"  who  were  disr 
obedient''  would  simply  identify  them  as  the  same  who  were  liv- 
ing in  Noah's  time. 

But  this  is  not  what  Peter  said.  He  did  not  say—"  who  were 
dis()bcdient."     His  words  can  not  bear  that  translation. 

This  turns  upon  the  grammatical  construction  of  the  participle 
with  or  without  the  article.  The  article  before  the  participle  is 
equivalent  to  a  relative  before  the  verb.*    If  the  article  were  here 

*Sce  a  case  in  point  Rev.  7 :  14 :  "  These  are  they  Avho  came 
out  of  tribulation  " — the  comimj  ovefi{tiirf)Kontv(u)  participle  with  the 
article;  "and  have  washed" — finite  verb  in  the  same  construc- 
tion, etc. 


I.  TETER. — CHAP.  III.  397 

it  would  fully  justify  the  translation  given  in  our  English  version. 
But  the  article  is  not  here.  The  English  version  therefore  trans- 
lates words  that  are  not  here,  and  fails  to  translate  correctly  the 

words  that  are  here. As  said  above,  this  aorist  participle  icith- 

out  the  article  qualifies  "spirits"  and  sustains  the  closest  rela- 
tions to  the  verb  "preached" — which  for  convenience  we  call  the 
principal  verb.  It  signifies  that  this  preaching  was  to  spirits  then 
and  for  the  shortest  time  previously  in  a  disobedient  state,  and  was 
brought  to  them  because  of,  or  by  occasion  of,  their  disobedience. 

These  two  points  characterize  the  aorist  participle  Avhen  with- 
out the  article,  viz.,  a  very  closely  antecedent  time;  and  a  more 
or  less  definite  relation  of  occasion  or  cause,  for  the  action  of  the 
principal  verb. These  points  should  be  illustrated  and  sus- 
tained by  examples.  It  will  be  useful  also  to  carry  along  with  us 
the  very  different  grammatical  relation  of  the  participle  when 
preceded  by  the  article. 

Cases  from  the  same  author  are  specially  valuable. 

Thus  in  1  Peter.  2:  15  we  have — "  For  so  is  the  will  of  God 
that  ye,  doing  good  (participle  without  the  article  in  the  accusa- 
tive before  the  infinitive)  should  silence  the  ignorance  of  foolish 
men."  This  "doing  good"  stands  in  close  relations  of  time  with 
the  silencing,  and  is  also  the  occasion  or  means  of  accomplishing 
it — these  being  the  two  points  to  be  shown  in  the  relation  of  the 
participle,  so  used,  to  the  principal  verb. With  the  article  pre- 
ceding it,  the  sense  would  be — It  is  the  will  of  God  that  well- 
doing men — the  well-doers — should  silence  etc.  This  makes  a 
very  difibrent  thing  of  it — much  more  general  and  loose:  indeed 
robbed  of  all  special  reference  to  the  people  to  whom  he  was 
writing. 

Again,  in  2  Pet.  1:  18,  our  English  version  is:  "This  voice 
which  came  from  heaven  we  heard."  But  this  translation  makes 
the  same  mistake  which  we  have  in  the  word — "  which  Avere  disobe- 
dient." This  aorist  participle,  meaning  "  coming  down,"  is  without 
the  article,  and  therefore  should  be  read:  This  voice  we  heard 
coming  doion;  we  heard  it  07i  its  way ;  heard  it  so  that  we  knew 
whence  it  came.  Its  coming  preceded  our  hearing  by  the  short- 
est time  only — only  long  enough  for  the  sound  to  reach  us ;  and 
its  coming  was  the  occasion  or  cause  of  our  hearing  it.     These 

two  points  are  therefore  clearly  involved  here. On  the  other 

hand,  if  the  article  had  been  used  here,  it  would  justify  the  re- 
ceived translation,  but  it  would  materially  mar  the  sense ;  for 
then,  so  far  as  this  manner  of  stating  the  fact  is  concerned,  the 
voice  might  have  come  dow^n  any  supposable  time  before  the 
hearing. 

1  Pet.  5 :  10  afibrds  a  case  of  each  sort — one  participle  with  the 
article  and  one  without  it :  "  The  God  of  all  grace,  who  hath 
called  us  unto  his  eternal  glory,  after  that  ye  have  sufiered  awhile, 
make  you  perfect,"  etc.  "  Who  hath  called  "  (o  xa'KiGas) — the  one 
who  hath,  the  same  who  hath  called — is  the  participle  with  the 
article,  equivalent,  therefore,  to  the  finite  verb  with  its  relative. 


398  I.  PETER. — CHAP.  III. 

But  the  other  participle,  you  Jiamng  suffered  briefly  (oXtyov 
7Ta%vtaa),  aorist  participle  without  the  article,  means  that  the  per- 
sons so  described,  God  will  soon  make  perfect — the  time  of  suffer- 
ing being  very  shortly  antecedent  to  the  time  of  God's  relief;  and 
moreover,  also,  the  occasion  or  ground  for  it — the  same  two  points 

as  before. On  the  other  hand,  "who  hath  called  you,"  stands 

in  no  such  close  time-relations  to  the  principal  verb.  This  calling 
may  have  been  years  before — even  in  the  past  eternity. 

In  2  Pet.  1  :  10  we  read  :  "If  ye  do  these  things,  ye  shall  never 
fall ;"  but  more  closely  translated,  thus :  "  For,  doing  these  things" 
(participle  without  the  article),  "ye  shall  never  fall."  While 
doing,  so  long  as  ye  continue  to  be  doing,  and  becavse  ye  are 
doing  these  things,  ye  shall  not  fall — the  closest  relations  of  time, 
and  also  a  distinct  relation  of  cause  or  ground. — But  with  the  ar- 
ticle it  would  be  very  general : — the  doers  of  these  things  shall 
not  fall.  This  puts  the  case  much  farther  off  from  the  people  he 
addresses. 

2  Pet.  1 :  21 :  "  Holy  men  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the 
Holy  Ghost."  More  closely  translated  thus:  "Spake,  being 
moved ;"  spake  precisely  under  the  impulse  of  the  Spirit,  and  not 
otherwise;  this  impulse  being  in  time  closely  previous  to  their 
speaking,  and  also  its  occasion  or  cause — the  same  two  points 

every-wiiere  appearing. On  the  contrary,  if  the  article   were 

here,  the  moaning  would  be — Holy  men  who  were  moved  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  spake — which  makes  the  statement  decidedly  more 
loose. 

Avery  instructive  passage  to  our  purpose  is  Acts  17:  24:  "God 
who  made  the  world  and  all  things  in  it  (6  TTocrjsas;  participle 
with  the  article) — the  maker,  the  same  who  made — "  being  him- 
self Lord  of  heaven  and  earth  "  (participle  without  the  article), 
"dwelleth  not  in  hand-made  temples."  Notice  the  time-relation 
to  the  principal  verb,  "  dwelleth,"  sustained  respectively  by  these 
two  participles.  The  former  has  no  definite  time-relation  what- 
ever. No  matter  ivheii  God  made  the  earth.  The  writer  implies 
nothing  on  that  point;  for  the  purpose  of  his  argument  he  needs 
to  imply  nothing. — But  the  latter — the  participle  unthout  the  ar- 
ticle— stands  in  very  close  time-relations  to  his  verb.  Because 
this  Great  God  is  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth  now  and  forever, 
therefore  ye  can  not  suppose  that  he  dwells  in  hand-made  tem- 
ples. Here  are  both  the  close  time-relation  and  the  relation  of 
cause  or  reason — the  same  two  points  which  we  find  ever  present 
in  this  use  of  the  participle. 

In  historic  passages  we  have  the  same  usage  in  multitudes  of 
instances.  Thus,  ?.latt.  8:  23:  "Him,  having  entered  into  a  ship, 
his  disciples  followed;" — having  entered — the  participle  without 
the  article,  signifying,  therefore,  that  very  shortly  after  his  embarka- 
tion they  followed,  and  hecan.se  of  that  embarkation.  To  say  that 
tli(iy  followed  him  who  entcu'cd — the  entering  one  (participle  with 
the  article) — would  make  it  a  very  different  thing.  Also,  Matt. 
9:  27,   28:    "Jesus,   going   forward   thence,  two   blind  men  fol- 


I.  PETEE. — CHAP.  III.  399 

lowed ;"  going  forward,  or,  better,  having  gone  forward  ;  aorist 
participle  without  the  article,  here  as  in  our  passage,  in  very  close 
relations  of  time  to  the  principal  verb  (follow),  and  bearing  the 
relation  of  occasion,  to  this  following.  But  to  say — They  followed 
him  who  departed  thence  (participle  with  the  article),  makes  en- 
tirely another  statement. 

Cases  of  this  sort  might  be  cited  by  scores  and  hundreds.  Let 
these  suffice. 

The  general  doctrine  of  the  aorist  participle  without  the  article 
is  put  thus  by  Pres.  S.  C.  Bartlett  {Keiv  Englander,  Oct.,  1872, 
p.  608) :  "  The  aorist  expresses  a  simple  fact,  act,  or  event,  ante- 
cedent (at  least  in  its  beginnings),  and  hence  is  the  participle 
chiefly  chosen  to  express  barely  the  antecedent  fact  or  occasion 
on  which  (for  whatever  reason)  some  other  act  took  place."  "It 
thus  becomes  a  brief  and  incidental,  though  loose,  method  of  giv- 
ing the  time  or  date  of  the  fact  of  the  principal  verb.  It  is  so 
used  literally  hundreds  of  times  in  the  New  Testament.  When 
attached  to  the  indirect  complement  of  the  verb — i.  e.,  in  the 
oblique  cases  (as  in  our  passage) — this  is  its  sole  use." 

Applying  these  well-established  laws  of  Greek  grammar  to  our 
passage,  we  have  the  unbelieving  state  of  these  imprisoned  spirits, 
preceding  the  preaching  by  only  the  briefest  time ;  and,  moreover, 
this  unbelieving  state,  the  occasion  or  ground  of  this  preaching  to 
them  of  righteousness.  They  were  preached  to  because  they  were 
so  wicked ;  because  they  so  persistently  repelled  the  warnings  of 
Noah,  God's  faithful  herald.^ 

Passing  to  other  points,  the  English  translation  "sometime" 
("which  sometime  were  disobedient")  is  very  defective.  Sup- 
posably  it  is  put  to  translate  the  Greek  (Tro-r'f);  but  this,  as  used 
by  Peter,  unquestionably  means — in  the  old  time;  long  ago.  These 
are  the  cases  of  his  usage:  1  Pet.  2  :  10 — "Who  in  time  past  were 
not  a  people."  1  Pet.  3  :  5 — "  In  the  old  time,  the  holy  women 
also."  2  Pet.  1:  21 — "Prophecy  came  not  in  old  time." — This 
sense  of  the  word  is  therefore  fixed  by  the  uniform  usage  of  the 
same  author. 

It  will  be  objected  that  the  words  "  preached  to  the  spirits  in 
prison,"  represent  this  preaching  to  be  done  to  spirits — not  to  men 
in  the  flesh;  also  to  spirits  imprisoned  and  not  to  men  living  their 

first  probation  on  the  earth. This  objection,  if  not  forceful,  is 

at  least  plausible,  and  should  be  carefully  and  candidly  treated. 

Let  it  then  be  considered  that  when  Peter  was  writing  these 
words  they  were  imprisoned  spirits ;  and  that  Peter's  own  epis- 
tles show  that  he  was  in  the  habit  of  thinking  of  both  those  old 

*  As  to  the  grammatical  terms  used  by  grammarians  to  designate 
these  two  very  diverse  uses  of  the  participle — i.  e.,  either  without  or 
with  the  article — Hadley  calls  the  former  "circumstantial,"  Cur- 
tius,  from  its  grammatical  relations,  an  appositive ;  Donaldson, 
Green,  and  others,  a  predicate  or  predicative. But  with  the  arti- 
cle preceding  it,  an  attributive — one  which  ascribes  to  its  substan- 
tive an  attribute  or  defines  it. 


400  I.    PETER. — CHAP.    III. 

sinners  of  the  flood  and  of  the  fallen  angels  as  "  cast  down  to 
hell;  "  "delivered  into  chains  of  darkness;"  and  "reserved  unto 
the  day  of  judgment  to  be  punished"  (2  Pet.  2:  4,  9).  It  was, 
therefore,  not  unnatural  that  in  the  first  brief  allusion  made  to 
them  (as  above),  thej  should  be  spoken  of  as  they  lay  at  that  mo- 
ment before  his  mind — imprisoned  spirits.  The  further  descrip- 
tion corrects  any  possible  misconception  as  to  their  state  at  the 
time  the  preaching  was  done.  That  state  was  one  of  persistent, 
mad  rebellion  against  God  and  his  Spirit,  maintained  during  all 
that  long  period  while  the  ark  was  in  preparation.  That  the 
preaching  was  done  at  that  time  and  not  while  they  were  in 
prison  isindicated  (as  shown  above)  by  the  usage  of  the  participle 
without  the  article;  also  by  Peter's  choice  of  the  word  for 
"  preach,"  which,  bo  it  carefully  observed,  is  not  evangelize — the 
usual  word  for  preaching  good  tidings,  but  is  (kerusso,  xj^puocrw) — 
the  very  word  which  in  Peter's  mind  best  describes  the  preaching 
of  Noah  (2  Eps.  2:  5) — "saved  Noah,  a  preacher  of  righteous- 
ness."* Noah's  mission  under  Christ  and  through  the  Spirit  was 
that  of  preaching  righteousness ;  calling  upon  the  people  to  turn 
from  their  sins  to  a  righteous  life,  and  proclaiming  to  them  the 
righteousness  of  God  and  by  consequence  his  then  impending 
judgments  in  the  coming  flood. 

Still  another   consideration  should  have  weight. The  laws 

of  the  Greek  language  in  reference  to  the  participle  without  the 
article  (as  already  shown)  absolutely  compel  us  to  admit  that  the 
preaching  was  to  men  then,  at  that  very  time,  stubbornly  unbe- 
lieving, impersuasible.  Now,  if  they  were  at  that  time,  not  men 
in  the  flesh,  but  spirits  in  prison,  then  what?  Then  this  follows  : 
that  those  lost  souls  in  Hades  were,  morally,  worse  than  the  dev- 
ils ! — for  we  have  the  authority  of  an  apostle  that  "  the  devils 
believe"  (^.  e.,  in  the  existence  of  God)  "and  tremble."  But 
these  lost  spirits — then  two  thousand  years  in  Hades — were  still 
defiantly  unbelieving,  even  in  the  existence  of  God !  This  does 
not  look  hopeful  as  to  the  modern  doctrine  of  "  eternal  hope." 
Hades  has  not  proved  to  be  reformatory!  If  after  so  long  a  time, 
it  had  not  even  made  them  "  believe  and  tremble,"  there  must  be 
exceedingly  small  ground  of  hope  that  they  will  ever  believe— 
and  repent  and  love. 

These  points  would  seem  to  offset  fully  the  force  of  the  objec- 
tion now  in  hand  by  explanations  and  by  points  of  counter-evi- 
dence which  go  to  show  that  the  preaching  was  really  done  in 
Noah's  time,  and  not  at  the  point  immediately  subsequent  to  the 
death  of  Christ. 

■••■  This  verb  (kerusso)  occurs  often  in  the  New  Testament  in  the 
sense — to  preach;  but  not  always  in  the  sense  of  preaching  the 
gospel.  It  may  mean  only  to  preacli  riglitcousncss,  for  its  primary 
sense  is  to  make  proclamaf ion.     Hence  it  is  the  right  word  here  for 

this    preaching  by  Noah. Tlie   otlier  verb    (evangelize)  means 

primarily — to  preach  the  gospel — glad  tidings — and  would  be  less 
appropriate  here. 


I.  PETER. — CHAP.  III.  401 

Our  English  translation — "  sometime  "  ("  which  sometime  were 
disobedient")  —  is  far  from  being  accurate.  If  it  was  in- 
tended to  translate  the  Greek  "  pote  "  [Trorf]  it  is  entirely  incor- 
rect. "Pote"  (as  shown  above)  means — in  the  old  time;  and 
with  (ote — o-ff )  after  it — in  that  old  time  when  God's  long-suffer- 
ing was  waiting,  etc. 

2.  The  next  line  of  evidence  lies  in  the  exigencies  of  the  con- 
text.  The  scope  of  the  context  is  a  legitimate  source  of  evidence 

upon  our  pending  choice  between  the  two  rival  theories  of  inter- 
pretation. 

Tn  this  passage  the  scope  of  the  context  is  very  obvious.  If 
Christians  must  suffer  (says  the  writer)  let  it  be  for  well-doing ; 
not  for  ill-doing;  and  let  them  see  in  the  case  of  their  own  Lord 
Jesus  a  very  striking  and  forcible  illustration  of  the  point.  To 
'set  forth  this  example  and  to  put  its  moral  force  in  strong  light, 

is  the  aim  of  the  whole  passage  to  the  end  of  the  chapter. 

Mark  the  momentous  contrast  between  his  suffering  for  righteous- 
ness, and  his  reward.  His  sufferings  in  the  flesh  were  even  unto 
death  ;  but,  in  and  through  the  Spirit,  he  was  imbued  with  death- 
less energy  ("made  alive" — ^too-oLtjOsLo),  and  exalted  to  glorious 

power. The   death-side    of   this    contrast  is   passed   with  no 

further  detail;  but  the  side  of  life,  energy,  power,  exaltation — is 
expanded  throughout  the  remainder  of  the  chapter. 

Now,  if  we  adopt  the  first  named  of  the  two  rival  constructions, 
viz.,  that  he  went  to  Hades  and  preached,  the  utmost  we  can 
know  of  the  power,  sublimity,  grandeur,  of  that  descent  and  of 
that  preaching,  is  exceedingly  small.  The  whole  proceeding 
seems  to  me  to  lie  before  us  as  essentially  a  blank."  -Not  the  first 
thing  is  known  as  to  what  he  preached,  nor  as  to  the  results  of 
that  preaching.  Whether  the  slightest  results  followed,  no  man 
living  has  ever  known.  On  this  point  no  inspired  record  has 
whispered  a  word,  or  shed  one  ray  of  light. 

I  must  gravely  doubt  whether  the  first  readers  of  this  epistle 
knew  any  more  about  it  than  we  do.  I  can  not  imagine  therefore 
that  these  words  (if  they  must  be  taken  in  the  sense  now  sup- 
posed) made  any  definite  impression  upon  their  minds  as  to  the 
moral  value — the  reward — of  suffering  for  well-doing  rather  than 
for  ill.  That  is  to  say,  under  this  construction  it  does  not  appear 
that  the  scope  of  the  context — the  objects  manifestly  had  in  view 

— were  subserved  in  the  least  by  this  illustration  of  the  case. 

But  if  we  accept  the  second  construction  (as  put  above)  a  field  of 
glorious  moral  power,  activity  and  exaltation,  is  opened  to  our 
view.  First,  Christ  goes  abroad  {-opfv'isLG,  is  the  word)  clothed 
with  mighty  power  by  the  Spirit,  and  pervades  the  nations  with 
the  divine  energy  of  the  Holy  Ghost  attending  the  preaching  of 
his  servants  ;  for  manifestly  Noah  is  here  only  as  a  representative 
preacher  of  righteousness — one  out  of  a  host  of  ancient  prophets; 
and  the  hardened  generation  of  Noah's  time  also  are  named  here 
as  a  representative  people,  obviously  because  on  the  Scripture 
record  they  stand  at  the  head  of  the  generations  upon  whom  the 


402  I.    PETER. — CHAP.  III. 

Spirit  strove  in  connection  with  Christ's  preaching  through  his 
servants.  These  representative  men  suggested,  therefore,  all  the 
subsequent  ages  of  human  history  in  which  the  Divine  Spirit 
wrought  for  Christ,  with  and  through  his  human  servants,  in  re- 
claiming men  to  God.  If  sometimes  many  resisted,  grieved,  vexed 
his  Holy  Spirit,  yet  many  were  saved — a  few  only  with  Noah 
through  the  waters  of  the  flood ;  but  the  baptism  which  those 
waters  suggested  seems  to  have  brought  to  Peter's  mind  the  richer 
baptisms  of  the  Holy  Ghost  which  closely  followed  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus — at  which  point  we  have  come  to  another  going 
(-opsv'hca),  viz.,  up  into  heaven,  there  to  be  exalted  most  gloriously, 
even  to  the  supreme  Mediatorial  throne  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 
These  two  grand  missions — goings  forth — first  to  the  great  moral  en- 
terprise of  preaching  righteousness  through  the  Spirit  and  by  means 
of  his  human  servants ;  and  secondly,  upward  to  heaven  to  be  en- 
throned there  in  supreme  exaltation  and  glory — these  combined 
make  up  the  second  side  of  the  grand  contrast — the  glorious  re- 
ward of  suffering  for  well-doing  rather  than  for  ill. 

Now  this  view  of  the  context  has  no  lack  of  significance  or  of 
moral  power.  It  witnesses  to  the  results  which  the  writer  had  in 
view  with  telling,  momentous  force.  It  puts  logic  into  his  words; 
it  so  interprets  him  as  to  clothe  his  descriptions  and  allusions 
with  power,  sublimity,  and  glory !  Nor  let  it  be  said  that  Peter's 
mind  was  never  equal  to  such  comprehensiveness,  such  logic, 
such  sublime  conceptions  of  the  greatness  and  grandeur  of 
Christ's  work  through  the  Spirit,  and  of  his  reward;  and  that 
we  put  more  into  his  words  than  he  can  be  supposed  to  have 
dreamed  of.  Let  not  this  be  said;  for  the  tone,  the  breadth,  the 
dignity  of  Peter's  thought  as  shown  throughout  these  epistles — • 
the  first  especially — are  to  every  capable  critic  a  perpetual 
marvel. 

3.  Each  of  these  two  theories  of  construction  carries  with  it 
certain  points  assumed  and  involved.  The  question  whether  these 
points  are  true  or  not  true — are  well  supported,  or  not  supported 
at  all — must  bear  strongly  for  or  against  these  respective  theories. 
To  this  question  the  reader's  attention  is  now  invited. 

As  to  the  second  construction,  we  are  very  safe  in  saying  that 
these  assumed  and  involved  points  are  most  abundantly  sustained 

in  the  Scriptures. Thus  (1)   that   Christ  was  in  the  ancient 

ciiurch  from  Noah's  time  onward,  energizing,  sustaining  his  great 
spiritual  work,  needs  no  elaborate  proof  In  fact,  stronger  proof 
is  scarcely  possible  than  that  given,  Ex.  23  :  20-23  :  "  Behold,  I 
(tiie  Lord  CJod,  v.  19)  send  an  angel  l^cfore  thee,  to  keep  thee  in 
the  way,  and  to  bring  thee  into  the  place  which  I  have  prepared. 
])(>ware  of  him  and  obey  his  voice;  provoke  him  not;  for  he  will 
not  pardon  your  transgressions  ;  for  7)i>/  lunnc  is  in  him."  "  But  if 
thou  shalt  indeed  obey  his  voice  and  do  all  that  1  speak,  then  T 
will  be  an  enemy  to  thine  enemies,"  etc.  Here  the  power  to  par- 
don or  not  ])ardon  transgressions  assumes  his  real  divinity;  that 
God's  "  name  is  in  him  "  makes  this  angel  [messenger]  really  di- 


I.    PETER. CHAP.    III.  403 

vine.  "  Obeying  his  voice "  is  substantially  "  doing  all  that  I 
speak  " — which  can  be  said  of  none  else  but  the  Father  and  the 

Son. The  reader  may  also  compare  what  is  said  (Josh.  5:  \S- 

15)  of  "the  Captain  of  the  Lord's  host."  Again  (2)  that  Christ 
wrought  then  as  now  and  ever  in  the  person  and  with  the  instru- 
mental hand  of  his  human  servants  the  prophets — holy  men  of 
God,  preachers  of  righteousness — it  would  only  prove  one's  igno- 
rance of  Scripture  to  doubt. And  (3)  that  they  wrought  by  and 

with  the  Holy  Spirit  is  also  abundantly  clear.     Two  passages  vciW 

suggest  the  nature  and  the  strength  of  the  proof. (a)  Tsaiah 

(63:  10,  11)  speaking  of  the  wayward  people  of  Israel,  says: 
"  But  they  rebelled  and  vexed  his  Holy  Spirit;  therefore  he  chas- 
tened them;"  but  "remembering  the  days  of  old — Moses  and  his 
people  " — he  exclaims — "  Where  is  he  that  brought  them  up  out 
of  the"  [Red]  "Sea?  Where  is  he  that  put  his  Holy  Spirit 
within  him  "  [Israel]  ? 

(b)  Stephen's  testimony  is  decisive  (Acts  7:  51) — "Ye  do  al- 
ways resist  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  your  fathers  did,  so  do  ye."_ 

Thus  the  great  points  assumed  in  the  second  construction  are 
amply  sustained  in  the  Scriptures.  But  the  first  above  named 
construction — that  which  supposes  Christ  to  have  descended 
into  Hades  and  preached  there — finds  no  support  elsewhere 
in  the  Scriptures.  As  to  this  supposed  descent  and  sup- 
posed preaching,  the  inspired  word,  outside  of  this  passage,  is  ut- 
terly silent.  All  is  blank.*  If  Peter  knew  this  descent  and 
preaching  to  be  facts,  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  any  other 
apostle  knew  this.     And  never  a  word,  either  here  or  elsewhere, 

*  Would  the  reader  remind  me  of  Psalm  16  :  10  and  of  the  quo- 
tations of  it  in  the  New  Testament  by  Peter  (Acts  2:  27,  31)  and 
by  Paul  (Acts  13  :  35)  ?  That  verse  reads  in  our  English  version, 
"For  thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  hell,  nor  suffer  thine  Holy  One 
to  see  corruption."  But  the  best  criticism  makes  this  :  Thou  wilt 
not  deliver  me  over  to  Hades — personified  as  King  of  the  under- 
world ;  considers  "  my  soul  "  as  simply  equivalent  to  vie,  myself, 
with  no  special  reference  to  the  spirit  as  distinct  from  the  body  ; 
indeed  in  this  case  referring  to  body  rather  than  to  soul;  to  the 
corruption  of  the  body  rather  than  to  any  thing  whatever  about  the 
soul.  This  interpretation  is  very  powerfully  sustained  by  the 
three  following  considerations ;  viz.:  (1)  The  force  of  the  Hebrew 
parallelism,  Avhich  shoAvs  that  the  sense  of  the  whole  verse  is — suf- 
fer thine  Holy  One  to  see  corruption  in  the  grave ; — (2)  Peter 
makes  Christ's  resurrection  the  vital  point  of  the  passage.  This 
of  course  was  of  the  body.  "  David,  foreseeing  this,  spake  of  the  res- 
urrection of  Christ ;  that  his  soul  {himself  and  really  the  body)  was 
not  left  in  Hades  (the  grave),  neither  did  his  flesh  see  corruption  '' 
(Acts  2:  31).  (3)  Paul,  quoting  the  same  passage  (Psalm  16  :  10) 
and  for  the  same  purpose  (i.  e.),  to  prove  the  resurrection,  utterly 
omits  the  reference  to  his  soul  and  finds  the  whole  sense  of  the  pas- 
sage in  the  second  clause — thine  Holy  One  not  seeing  corruption. 
These  considerations  sweep  away  all  the  evidence  from  this  Pealm 
that  Christ's  soul  descended  into  the  abode  of  lost  spirits. 


404  I.    PETER. — CHAP.  III. 

indicates  the  object  of  this  descent  into  Hades,  or  its  results.  Not 
a  ray  of  light  is  thrown  upon  the  subject-matter  of  his  preaching 
— not  a  hint  that  even  suggests  whether  he  preached  hope  or  de- 
spair ;  more  mercy,  or  swifter  and  more  fearful  judgment.     On 

all  these  points,  unrelieved  darkness  reigns. Now  what  object 

can  be  supposed  to  have  been  aimed  at  by  saying  so  little  and 
nothing  more,  it  is  entirely  impossible  for  any  human  mind  now 
to  conceive.  What  good  results  can  have  followed  from  a  state- 
ment so  imperfect,  so  vague,  in  its  significance  so  necessarily  un- 
certain— it  defies  all  human  sagacity  to  determine. 

All  these  considerations  create  an  exceedingly  strong  presump- 
tion against  the  correctness  of  the  theory  which  involves  such  diffi- 
culties. No  other  great  truth  referred  to  in  the  Scriptures  is  left 
so  indefinite,  so  dark,  so  unintelligible.  We  may  confidently  affirm 
— It  is  not  the  way  of  the  Scriptures — is  not  the  way  of  the  teach- 
ing Spirit — to  teach  divine  truth  so. 

4.  It  is  legitimate  that  the  theory  which  makes  Christ  descend 
into  Hades  and  preach  there,  should  bear  the  weight  of  its  inev- 
itable consequences. If  these  consequences  become  objections, 

the  theory  must  meet  them.  If  the  objections  become  insupera- 
ble, the  theory  must  go  down  before  them. 

Now  it  is  reasonable  to  assume  that  if  Christ  went  there  and 
preached,  he  preached  something.  It  would  be  puerile  to  deny 
this,  and  very  weak  to  evade  it  by  saying  that  we  take  no  respon- 
sibility on  that  point  and  are  not  in  any  respect  holden  either  to  de- 
fine, explain,  or  justify. We  advance  then  to  this  definite  alterna- 
tive:— ^that  if  he  went  there  and  preached,  he  preached  either  hope 
or  despair ;  either  more  mercy,  or,  if  this  be  possible,  more  certain 

or  more  speedy  judgment. The  latter  of  these  alternatives — 

viz.,  that  he  preached  despair — more  certain  or  more  speedy  judg- 
ment— has  few  advocates,  and  may  perhaps  be  dismissed  without 
argument,  unless  it  be  to  say  that  so  far  as  we  can  know,  there 
would  not  be  the  least  occasion  for  preaching  despair  and  judg- 
ment to  those  imprisoned  spirits.  It  can  not  be  supposed  that 
this  would  be  in  any  respect  new,  or  needed.  Alas!  for  they 
know  it  already  but  too  well ! 

Let  us  then  consider  the  other  alternative — the  only  one  wliich 
men  care  to  accept  and  defend ;  the  only  one  which  seems  to 
have  any  attractions; — viz.,  that  Christ  went  thereto  preach  hope 
and  mercy. Against  this  lie  the  following  objections: 

(1.)  For  this  sense  Peter  should  certainly  have  used  the  word 
evangelizo — preach  good  tidings — and  not  the  word  he  did  use 
(kerusso — xrjpvanu)) — which  means,  to  make  proclamation;  and  ac- 
cording to  Peter's  own  usage  of  it  (2  Pet.  2:  5) — the  preaching 
of  righteousness ;  justice. 

(2.)  The  persons  preached  to  were  not  infants  who  while  on 
earth  did  not  live  to  reach  moral  ros]ionsihility ;  nor  were  they 
h(!athon  who  had  heard  no  word  from  (iod's  servants — who  ha(i 
no  light  of  rcvchition  from  (jlod,  no  warnings  against  sin,  no  mo- 
nitions of  coming  judgment. Consequently  the  question  of  a 


I.  PETER. — CHAP.  III.  405 

further  probation  for  such  classes  is  not  involved  here  at  all, 
"Whatever  the  probabilities  may  be  as  to  a  new  probation  for 
those  classes,  has  not  the  least  relevancy  here  and  can  not  come 
at  all  within  the  scope  of  our  present  argument.  The  theory  now 
in  question  must  face  the  supposition  that  Christ  went  to  Hades 
and  preached  to  a  generation  of  lost  spirits  who  stand  on  the 
Scripture  record  (as  also  here  in  this  passage)  the  most  persist- 
ently disobedient,  unbelieving,  God-defying  generation  that  ever 
lived  on  the  earth — a  generation  that  went  solid  against  every 
endeavor  God  could  make  to  save  them — who  withstood  the 
preaching  of  Noah  with  the  Holy  Spirit  attending  for  one  hundred 
and  twenty  years — till  God  declared  of  them — "My  Spirit  shall 

strive  with  them  no  longer." This  theory  therefore  must  meet 

and  must  answer  the  question — "Why  is  this  generation  singled 
out  from  among  all  the  lost  generations  of  men  since  the  world 
began  to  receive  the  preaching  of  hope  from  the  risen  Jesus? 
Did  he  go  to  them  in  particular  because  this  bold,  decisive  step 
would  most  effectually  proclaim  through  all  the  realms  of  the 
lost,  and  indeed,  throughout  the  entire  moral  universe,  that  God 
had  repented  of  his  too  hasty  words — "  My  Spirit  shall  not  always 
strive;"  that  really,  since  that  time,  he  had  thought  better  of 
that  decision,  and  had  concluded  to  reverse  that  overstringent 
policy;  and  that,  therefore,  he  had  now  planned  to  open  another 
theater  of  probation  and  hang  out  the  bow  of  hope  again  over  a 
ruined  race  ?  And  to  make  this  new  plan  clear  as  the  sunlight, 
was  it  arranged  that  Christ  should  go  there  especially  "  in  the 
Spirit" — the  same  Spirit  who  had  been  so  long  insulted  and  re- 
pelled that,  (to  maintain  his  own  self  respect,)  God  had  declared 
— "My  Spirit  shall  strive  with  them  no  longer?"  Does  this  rec- 
ord by  Peter  make  prominent  the  agency' of  the  Spirit  in  this 
preaching  in  order  to  show  that  all  their  insult  of  the  Spirit  is 
condoned,  and  that  God  retracts  his  (shall  we  say  ?)  too  hasty, 
too  impassioned  words  which  at  the  time  seemed  so  decisive  and 

so  fearfully  solemn? We  are  certainly  authorized  to  say  that 

if  God  has  repented  of  that  policy  of  withdrawing  his  Spirit  and 
of  vindicating  his  honor  when  persistently  insulted  for  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  years ;  if  he  has  since  concluded  to  reverse  it 
and  to  send  his  Spirit  again  to  sinners  imprisoned  and  awaiting 
their  final  judgment,  this  would  be  of  all  possible  methods  the 
best  for  making  it  understood.  No  back-step — no  method  of  re- 
calling and  disavowing  his  former  declaration  and  setting  forth  a 
new  policy  could  be  more  decisive  than  this ! 

The  reader  will  not  need  from  me  the  suggestion  that  this  sup- 
position sweeps  away  forever  what  we  have  often  read  in  the 
Scriptures  concerning  God  as  forever  perfect  in  wisdom,  and 
therefore  unchangeable  in  all  his  plans  and  purposes. 

5.  Yet  again:  It  is  currently  held  by  the  advocates  of  this  first 

named  theory  that  Ps.  16:  10,  quoted  by  Peter  (Acts  2:  27,  31), 

refers  to  this  very  descent  and  that  it  declares — "  Thou  wilt  not 

leave  my  soul  in  Hades."      So  interpreted,  this  prophecy  shows 

18 


406  I.  PETEE. — CHAP.  III. 

that  Jesus  distinctly  anticipated  that  when  he  should  go  on  this 
mission  of  hope  and  mercy,  the  Father  would  not  suffer  him  to 

stay!      The  Father   would    promptly   order   him    back! But 

what  does  this  fact  signify  ?  What  harmony  of  purpose  and  of 
work  between  the  Father  and  the  Son  does  this  indicate  ?  What 
mission  of  mercy  is  this  in  which  Christ  with  the  Spirit  goes, 
but  the  Father  will  not  leave  him  there  ?  Whose  mercy  supplies 
the  animus  to  this  enterprise  ?  Is  it  likely  to  succeed — the  Son 
W'ith  the  Spirit  being  in  it  and  for  it,  but  the  Father  apparently 
opposing  and  remanding  him  back  ? 

To  complicate  the  case  still  more,  it  is  plain  from  the  context 
of  Ps.  16 :  10  that  the  Messiah  rested  in  the  sweet  confidence  of 
faith  that  God  would  remand  him  back : — "  My  heart  is  glad  ;  my 
glory  rejoiceth ;  my  flesh  shall  rest  in  hope ;  for  thou  wilt  not 
leave  my  soul  in  hell"  [Hades];  but  wilt  speedily  summon  me 
away !  Indeed !  Who  then  takes  the  responsibility  of  this  mis- 
sion of  hope  and  mercy  ?  If  even  Christ  himself  is  exultant 
with  joy  because  the   Father  will  not   let  him  stay  there,  what 

sort  of  support  does  this  mission  of  mercy  find  ? Soberly,  is 

not  the  only  rational  escape  from  these  astounding  results, 
this: — that  the  whole  theory  is  a  baseless  fancy,  in  flat  contra- 
diction to  the  whole  strain  of  divine  revelation !  "^ 

6.  This  theory  is  confronted  by  the  whole  vast  array  of  Scrip- 
ture testimony  which  goes  to  show  that  the  present  probation  is 
a  finality ;  that  its  results  are  simply  everlasting — its  issues  being 
life  eternal  to  the  righteous,  death  eternal  to  the  wricked.  This 
Scripture  doctrine  precludes  the  preaching  of  hope  by  the  risen 
Jesus  to  the  lost,  imprisoned  spirits  of  Noah's  generation. f 

21.  The  like  figure  whereimto  even  baptism,  doth  also 
now  save  us  (not  the  putting  away  of  the  filth  of  the  flesh, 
but  the  answer  of  a  good  conscience  toward  God,)  by  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ: 

22.  Who  is  gone  into  heaven,  and  is  on  the  right  hand  of 
God ;  angels  and  authorities  and  powers  being  made  subject 
unto  him. 

In  the  last  clause  of  v.  20,  "by  water"  {8t,  I'SaT'oo)  should  not 

*  In  this  objection  I  wish  it  understood  that  I  assume  no  re- 
sponsibility for  this  interpretation  of  the  words — "Thou  wilt  not 
leave  my  soul  in  hell."  1  simply  \mt  the  case  upon  the  interpre- 
tation accepted  for  the  most  part,  as  I  supi)ORe,  among  those  who 
advocate  the  first  named  theory.  Yet  let  it  be  said  emphatically  : 
If  there  was  any  going  down  to  Hades  to  the  spirits  imprisoned 
there;  if  there  was  any  preaching  of  mercy  to  those  spirits,  then 
all  these  objections  are  to  be  met.  Whose  heart  was  in  that  mis- 
sion of  mercy?  Why  should  Christ  rejoice  that  the  Father  would 
not  let  him  stay  there? 

tThis  subject,  involving  the  ranch  agitated  question  of  "Eternal 
Hope,"  will  be  discussed  more  fully  in  Appendix  A. 


I.  PETER. — CHAP.  III.  407 

"be  taken  to  mean  precisely,  by  means  of  water,  but  rather 
through  water — were  borne  safely  in  the  ark  through  the  great 
waters  of  the  flood. 

The  ark  saving  men  through  the  flood-waters  suggests  to  Peter's 
mind  the  salvation  by  Christ  which  has  in  a  sense  its  symbol 
and  seal  in  baptism.  The  analogies  are  far  from  being  perfect ; 
yet  the  ark,  baptism,  and  salvation  by  Christ  have  some  points  in 
common,  and  Peter  is  careful  to  guard  against  misapprehension 
through  some  of  the  points  that  are  not  analogous,  yet  might  be 

falsely  supposed  to  be. That  element  in  baptism  which  now 

saves  you  [you  rather  than  "us"  is  the  improved  text]  is  not  the 
cleansing  of  the  flesh — is  not  water  applied  to  the  person  ;  but  is 
the  moral  attitude  of  an  upright  conscience  toward  God.  The 
English  translation,  "answer,"  fails  to  represent  the  Greek 
[frtfpcoT'»7jua],  for  this  noun  and  its  verb  mean  question  rather 
than  "answer."  The  apostle's  sense  seems  to  be — the  honest 
inquiry  for  truth,  involving  an  obedient  spirit  and  a  sincere  pur- 
pose of  will  to  please  God.  Peter  would  say  that  a  morally  pu- 
rified heart  and  not  a  washed  body — a  heart  sensitively  alive  to 
God's  claims  and  solemnly  purposed  to  meet  them,  constitute  the 
moral  attitude  which  insures  gospel  salvation. To  this  salva- 
tion the  resurrection  of  Christ  is  supremely  vital.  It  gave  the 
seal  of  the  Father's  indorsement  to  his  anointed  Son ;  it  raised 
this  Son  to  power  and  glory  in  the  heavens,  from  which  position 
he  sends  down  the  Spirit  of  power  from  on  high,  while  himself 
fills  the  Mediatorial  throne,  "  ever  living  to  make  intercession  for 
his  people." 

As  already  shown,  this  going  up  into  heaven  {TropivBua]  con- 
stitutes the  second  great  mission  ov  going  forth  of  Jesus — put  in  a 
mild  antithesis  with  his  going  forth  in  and  by  the  Spirit  for  great 
moral  efibrt  to  redeem  human  souls  from  sin.  This  second  going 
fills  out  his  sublime  work  of  salvation  and  consummates  his 
glorious  reward  for  his  sufferings  even  unto  death; — thus  serving 
to  show  how  much  better  is  suffering  for  well-doing  than  for  ill. 

That  "angels,  authorities  and  powers  are  made  subject  to 
him  "  sets  forth  his  absolutely  supreme  authority  and  dominion. 
All  these  loftiest  of  created  intelligences  do  him  homage  as  their 
Infinite  Lord  and  King;  they  await  his  bidding  for  any  service 
which  the  scheme  of  human  salvation  may  open  to  them  ;  they 
come  with  him  in  all  their  myriad  numbers  and  in  all  their 
splendor  to  enhance  the  majesty  of  the  final  judgment;  they 
swell  the  everlasting  song  which  ascribes  honor  and  glory  to 
Him  who  sits  on  the  throne  and  to  the  Lamb  forever  and  ever. 
Their  subjection  to  the  risen,  ascended  Jesus  gives  the  con- 
summation of  his  infinitely  glorious  reward. 


408  I.  PETER. — CHAP.  IV. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

This  chapter  throughout  follows  the  general  scope  of  the  closing 
paragraphs  of  the  chapter  preceding — "  better  to  suffer  for  doing 
well  than  for  doing  ill"  (3:  17);  suggesting  the  various  duties 
involved  in  a  state  of  earthly  suffering  and  its  manifold  benefits. 
— Peter  resumes  the  case  of  Christ's  suffering  in  the  flesh,  with 
its  analogies  in  the  sufferings  of  his  people  (v.  1);  who  should 
learn  thence  to  cease  from  sin  and  keep  themselves  free  from  all 
Gentile  abominations,  whatever  those  gross  sinners  may  think  of 
it  (v.  2-4) ;  who  must  answer  for  their  sins  to  the  Great  Judge 
(v.  5).  Those  who  suffer  for  and  with  Christ  even  unto  death 
have  the  gospel  for  their  joy  and  shall  live  as  to  God  in  the  Spirit 
(v.  6),  The  end  of  all  things  near  and  their  consequent  duties 
(v.  7);  various  duties  enjoined  and  enforced  (v.  8-11);  trials, 
even  though  fiery,  have  a  worthy  purpose  and  bring  great  bless- 
ings (v.  12,  13) ;  to  suffer  for  Christ  in  the  way  of  virtue  a  ground 
of^joy  (v.  14-16).  The  case  of  Christians  suffering  under  disci- 
pline, contrasted  with  that  of  sinners,  suffering  retribution  (v. 
17-19). 

1.  Forasmuch  then  as  Christ  hath  suffered  for  us  in  the 
flesh,  arm  yourselves  likewise  with  the  same  mind:  for  he 
that  hath  suffered  in  the  flesh  hath  ceased  from  sin ; 

2.  That  he  no  longer  should  live  the  rest  of  his  time  in 
'  the  flesh  to  the  lusts  of  men,  but  to  the  will  of  God. 

This  allusion  to  Christ's  suffering  in  the  flesh  resumes  the  great 
antithesis  in  3 :  18  ["put  to  death  as  to  the  flesh;  made  alive  as 
to  or  by  the  Spirit"],  touching  the  first  part,  the  being  "put  to 
death  in  the  flesh."  Consequently  that  antithesis  is  still  present 
to  Peter's  thought.  The  illative  Greek  particle  (ow),  "Foras- 
much as,"  renders  this  reference  to  the  preceding  chapter  (v.  17- 
22)  logically  certain.  The  better  textual  authorities  omit  the 
words  "for  us,"  leaving  it  simply,  "Christ  having  suffered  in  the 

flesh." "  Arm  yourselves  with  the  same  mind,"  conceives  of 

Christ's  Spirit  taken  lovingly  into  the  soul  as  a  defensive  armor, 
shielding  against  temptation  s  power.  The  military  figure  "arm" 
suggests  that  the  pending  conflict  may  be  unto  blood.  The  clause, 
"For  one  who  has  suffered  in  the  flesh"  (o  iraHoiv — the  suffering 
one— the  one  who  has  suffered),  "  has  ceased  from  sin,"  seems  to 
conceive  first  of  Christ  as  suffering  in  the  flesh  and  thereby  es- 
caping from  all  the  annoyances  of  sin  and  of  sinners,  being  lifted 
thereby  forever  beyond  the  possible  reach  of  the  evils  incident 
to  a  sinning  world.  Then,  secondly,  Peter  seems  by  a  tacit  anal- 
ogy to  apply  this  case  of  Christ  to  the  somewhat  different  yet 
analogous  case  of  his  tempted,  suffering  people,  who,  under  the 
discipline  of  suffering,  come  to  cease  from  sin  in  the  moral  sense 
of  being  purified  from  it.     The  end  [results]  of  such  purifying 


I.  PETER. — CHAP.  IV.  409 

discipline  is  that  they  no  longer  live  their  remaining  earthly  life 
to  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  but  to  the  will  of  God.  To  the  end  that 
they  may  so  live,  is  the  precise  sense  of  the  Greek  preposition 
here. 

The  reader  may  wisely  take  note  of  the  power  of  analogy  over 
Peter's  mind  and  its  influence  in  shaping  his  expressions,  as  we 
see  it  in  the  clause,  "One  who  has  sufi"ered  in  the  flesh  has  ceased 
from  sin."  There  seems  no  room  to  question  that  this  phrase 
was  suggested  by  the  case  of  Christ  and  took  its  form  from  his 
experience,  yet  it  as  certainly  passes  over  to  the  analogous  case 
of  his  people.  We  may  take  this  as  one  of  the  laws  or  habits 
of  Peter's  mind,  ruled  in  its  action  largely  by  the  power  of  anal- 
ogies. The  fact  will  help  us  to  interpret  other  passages  other- 
wise very  difficult. 

3.  For  the  time  past  of  our  life  may  suffice  us  to  have 
wrought  the  will  of  the  Gentiles,  when  we  walked  in  lasciv- 
iousness,  lusts,  excess  of  wine,  revelings,  banquetings,  and 
abominable  idolatries: 

4.  Wherein  they  think  it  strange  that  ye  run  not  with 
tliem  to  the  same  excess  of  riot,  speaking  evil  of  you : 

5.  AVho  shall  give  account  to  him  that  is  ready  to  judge 
the  quick  and  the  dead. 

The  time  past  of  their  life  should  fully  suffice  for  the  ways  and 
works,  the  follies  and  abominations,  of  sin — described  here  as 
"the  will  of  the  Gentiles,"  the  animus,  the  spirit  of  their  whole 
life;  and  developed  with  more  detail  as  "walking,"  living,  "in 
lasciviousness " — i.  e.,  self-indulgence  of  the  baser  passions; 
"lusts" — a  comprehensive  term  for  all  selfish  appetites  and  im- 
pulses. "Excess  of  wine,"  well  put  for  the  Greek,  overfioicings 
of  wine,  "revelings,"  drunken  carousals,  such  as  were  common  in 
the  feasts  of  Bacchus.  "Banquetings"  translates  the  word  for 
drinkings,  indulgence  in  drinks  that  intoxicate  being  the  central 

thing.     To  crown  all,  "  impious  idolatries." In  regard  to  all 

which  vile  practices,  they  affect  to  think  it  very  strange  in  you 
that  ye  will  not  run  with  them  into  the  same  recklessness  of  self- 
indulgence.  Even  blaspheming  you,  so  the  Greek  word  is,  which 
seems  here  to  allude  to  their  malicious  prosecutions — false  charges 
trumped  up  as  a  ground  for  bloody  persecution.  But  these  men 
(Peter  proceeds  to  say)  must  soon  render  their  account  (for  these 
malicious  bloody  persecutions)  to  him  who  holds  himself  in  read- 
iness to  judge  both  living  and  dead — i.  e.,  all  who  have  passed 
from  earth  and  all  who  yet  remain  upon  it. — The  obsolete  word 
"quick"  always  in  the  sense  of  living. 

It  will  help  us  greatly  in  our  interpretation  of  v,  6,  to  note 
carefully  the  course  of  Peter's  thought  in  v.  4,  5,  in  which  blas- 
pheming [English,  "speaking  evil']  refers  to  malicious  indict- 
ments for  the  purpose  of  bloody  persecution — which  again  sug- 
gests that  these  bloody  persecutors  must  themselves  shortly  render 


410  I.  PETER. — CHAP.  IV. 

their  account  for  this  innocent  blood  before  the  Great  Judge  of 
all. 

6.  For,  for  this  cause  was  the  gospel  preached  also  to  them 
that  are  dead,  that  they  might  be  judged  according  to  men 
iu  the  flesh,  but  live  according  to  God  in  the  sj)irit. 

This  passage  is  one  of  acknowledged  difficulty.  A  thorough 
examination  of  it  must  involve  a  careful  study  of — (1.)  Its  words, 
and  especially  of  their  antithetic  and  grammatical  relations  ; 
(2.)  Its  relations  to  the  whole  context.  That  is,  we  must  see 
what  words  Peter  has  used;  how  he  has  used  them;  and  also,  so 
far  as  possible,  must  ascertain  his  line  of  thought,  both  in  what 
precedes  and  in  what  follows. 

For  the  aid  of  the  merely  English  reader,  it  should  be  said 
that  the  Greek  word  for  "the  gospel  preached"  is  evangelizo — 
the  very  word  for  preaching  the  gospel,  but  not  the  same  word 
which  Peter  used  (3:  19)  for  preaching  to  the  imprisoned  spirits. 
That  word  meant  making  proclamation — i.  e.,  of  righteousness. 
The  fact  that  this  is  a  different  word  detracts  very  much  from  the 
probability  that  this  preaching  was  the  same  as  that. 

Note  also  that  the  word  for  "  dead  "  in  v.  6  [vfxpotcj],  though  the 
same  word  which  is  used  in  v.  5  for  "  dead,''  is  without  the  arti- 
cle. Consequently  it  does  not  say  the  dead — the  same  dead  ones 
before  spoken  of.  If  Peter  had  meant  to  say,  the  gospel  preached 
to  the  same  dead  whom  Christ  is  ready  to  judge,  he  would  natur- 
ally have  put  it  the  dead,  with  the  Greek  article  of  renewed  men- 
tion. This  law  [or  usage]  of  the  Greek  article  for  a  case  of  re- 
newed mention  is  unquestionably  general,  even  if  not  absolutely 
universal.  This  omission  of  it,  therefore,  bears  strongly,  even  if 
not  fatally,  against  the  construction  which  would  make  these  dead 
the  same  as  those. — Interpreting  the  words  as  Peter  wrote  them, 
we  must  determine  who  these  dead  are,  not  by  assuming  blindly 
that  they  are,  of  course,  the  same  as  those  in  v.  5,  but  by  study- 
ing what  he  says  about  them  and  by  due  regard  to  his  drift  of 
thought  in  the  context. 

Still  further  of  grammatical  forms  and  antithetic  relations. 
The  two  last  clauses — "Judged  according  to  men  in  the  flesh;" 
"Live  according  to  God  in  the  spirit" — are  made  directly,  cx^ 
plicitly  antithetic  in  every  particular.  Tlie  preposition  "accord- 
ing to"  [xaftt]  is  the  same  in  each  clause,  governing  the  same 
case  [the  accusative].  Also  "in  the  flesh"  and  "in  the  spirit" 
are  in  the  same  Greek  case  [the  dative],  corresponding  precisely 
to  each  other.  Add  to  this  that  the  Greek  particles  most  com- 
monly used  for  a  contrast  or  antithesis  {fitv  and  5f)  are  here, 
giving  this  sense:  On  the  one  hand,  they  are  judged  by  men,  or 
as  men,  in  the  flesh  (as  to  their  bodies)  ;  on  the  other  hand,  they 
live  as  to  God  (by  means  of  God)  in  or  ])y  the  spirit — i.  c,  as  to 
their  souls.  This  would  be  the  natural  antithesis  between  "flesh" 
and  "spirit,"  unless  important  considerations  appear  to  modify  it. 

The  conflicting  theories  as  to  the  construction  and  sense  of  this 


I.  PETEE. — CHAP.  IV.  411 

passage  are  mainly  resolvable  into  these  two,  of  which  the  first 
assumes  a  reference  to  Christ's  preaching  to  the  spirits  in  the  prison 
of  Hades — a  construction  generally  adopted  by  those  who  so  in- 
terpret the  passage  3 :  19.  The  second  supposes  the  writer's 
thought  to  be  upon  Christians  under  persecution — who  are,  on 
the  one  hand,  adjudged  to  death  in  the  flesh,  on  the  human  side, 
by  their  persecuting  fellow-men ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  they  live 
before  God,  on  the  divine  side,  as  to  their  spirits — souls. 

The  first  construction  assumes  as  certain  and  as  its  main  sup- 
port, that  these  dead  are  the  same  dead  as  those  in  v.  5 ;  and  this 
judgment,  the  same  as  that.  Consequently  this  first  theory  must 
needs  assume  that  this  particular  preaching  of  the  gospel  is  to  all 
the  dead  souls  in  Hades,  for  undeniably  the  "  dead  "  in  v.  5  are 
all i\iQ  dead;  also  that  the  purposed  result  of  it  is,  that  on  the 
one  hand,  they  must  all  be  judged  by  Christ  at  the  last  day  "ac- 
cording to  men  "  (whatsoever  this  may  mean),  as  to  their  bodies 
["  in  the  flesh  "]  ;  but  yet  that,  on  the  other  hand,  they  shall  live 
on  the  Godward   side,  or  before  God,  by  means   of  God — as  to 

their  souls. This  would  certainly  seem  to  mean  that  though 

their  bodies  experience  the  final  judgment  and  condemnation,  yet 
their  souls  have  eternal  life.  The  outcome  of  this  interpretation 
should  naturally  be  the  judgment  and  destruction  of  all  human 
bodies  ["flesh'  ],  but  the  salvation  of  all  human  souls  [spirits]. 
I  see  no  escape  from  this  conclusion  if  the  "  dead"  here  are  the 
same  dead  as  those  in  v.  5,  and  if,  also,  the  judgment  is  the  same, 
at  the  same  bar  of  Christ,  There  (in  v.  5)  the  "  dead"  are  doubt- 
less all  the  dead  who,  up  to  the  hour  when  Peter  wrote  had 
passed  from  earth  by  death. For  the  difficulties  and  absurdi- 
ties which  this  construction  involves,  I  take  no  responsibility. 
How  men  are  to  be  judged  by  God  as  to  their  bodies,  and  yet  be 
saved,  all  right,  as  to  their  souls,  it  must  be  left  to  those  who  so 
interpret  the  passage,  to  explain. 

In  my  view,  the  true  construction  must  be  reached  through  the 
evidence  which  comes  in  from  the  following  sources:  (1.)  The  le- 
gitimate demands  of  the  perfect  antithesis  between  the  two  last 
clauses — the  being  "judged  according  to  men  in  the  flesh,"  and 
the  "living  according  to  God  in  the  spirit."  (2.)  The  analogy  with 
the  passage  (3:  18) — Christ  put  to  death  in  the  flesh;  made  alive 
in  or  by  the  Spirit.  (3.)  The  entire  drift  of  thought  in  the  con- 
text, both  that  which  precedes  and  that  which  follows. 

(1.)  As  to  the  antithesis.  The  second  side  of  it — the  living 
according  to  God  must  be  living  with  the  life  of  God — living  on 
the  Godward  side,  as  to  their  souls.  Over  against  this  and  corre- 
lated to  it,  stands  being  judged  by  men  as  to  their  flesh,  their 
bodies.  On  the  human  side — the  side  toward  men  and  deter- 
mined by  their  relations  to  man,  stands  a  judgment  of  condemna- 
tion. By  men  they  are  condemned  to  death — a  death  which 
reaches  the  body  only,  i.  e.,  which  is  death  only  as  to  the  flesh. 

Such  is  the  death  of  all  Christians — especially  of  Christian 

martyrs.     The  case  here  described — "judged  as  to  men  with  a 


412  I.    PETER. — CHAP.  IV. 

judgment  reaching  to  the  body  only,  but  living  as  toward  God  in 
the  life  of  the  spirit,"  is  that  of  Christian  martyrs  and  o^  7io  other 

2)eople  of  our  world. This  judgment  according  to  men  as  to 

the  flesh  can  not  possibly  be  the  judgment  issued  by  Christ  at  the 
last  day;  for  this  would  not  be  "according  to  men;  "  this  could 
not  judge  bodies  and  not  souls;  this  could  not  condemn  the  body 
and  yet  give  life  to  the  soul ;  it  would  be  utterly  inconsistent  with 

living   as  toward  God  in  respect  to  their  spirits. Hence   the 

exigencies  and  demands  of  this  strong,  this  perfect  antithesis  in 
statement  compel  us  to  apply  the  words  to  Christian  martyrs  sim- 
ply because  the  words  can  not  reasonably — not  to  say,  can  not^os- 
silli/,  havea  fiiir,  consistent  application  to  any  other  men  of  our  race. 
(2.)  In  form  of  expression  and  also  in  the  sentiment,  this  pas- 
sage stands  in  very  close  analogy  Avith  the  last  clause  of  3:  18; 
Christ  put  to  death  in  the  flesh  (oapxt),  but  made  alive  in  the 
spirit  (TTvivixatt).  The  words,  "flesh"  and  "spirit"  are  the  same 
in  each  passage  and  are  in  the  same  dative  case.  The  "  being 
made  alive"  in  the  former  passage  corresponds  to  "  living"  in  the 
latter — the  slight  difierence  being  due  to  the  circumstance  that 
Christ's  living  again  was  a  resurrection;  the  life  of  the  martyrs 
is  a  kindred  blessedness,  a  similarly  glorious  immortality,  yet  not 

reached  through  an  immediate  resurrection  of  the  body. So 

also,  "  put  to  death  in  the  flesh  "  (said  of  Christ  in  3  :  18)  is  mod- 
ified but  slightly  as  used  here  of  Christian  martyrs,  by  the  refer- 
ence to  official,  persecuting  edicts  under  which  they  suffered.  In 
this  there  may  be  a  tacit  reference  to  v.  5  which  speaks  of  Christ 
as  in  readiness  to  judge  both  living  and  dead,  the  writer's  thought 
seeming  to  leap  from  Christ's  great  judgment  of  those  sin- 
ners to  their  petty  judgment-seats  at  which    Christian   martyrs 

were    adjudged    to    die    in    the    flesh. The    careful    reader 

of  chapter  4  will  see  that  the  writer  still  holds  in  mind 
that  wonderful  example  of  Christ,  suffering  for  well-doing — suf- 
fering even  unto  death  at  the  hand  of  wicked  men;  but  raised  to 
life,  glory,  power — to  mighty  works  of  grace  through  the  Spirit 
and  through  his  ministering  servants,  and  ultimately,  to  the  throne 
of  heaven.  He  begins  the  chapter  with  this:  "  Christ  therefore, 
having  suffered  in  the  flesh"  [the  same  word  aapx(,,  and  in  the 
same  case  as  in  v.  6  and  also  in  3 :  18].  Then  his  line  of  thought 
led  him  to  speak  of  their  wicked  surroundings,  their  temptations 
toward  the  base  lusts  and  abominable  crimes  of  the  heathen;  then 
of  their  being  accused  ("  blasphemed  "  is  the  Greek),  much  as 
their  glorious  Master  was.  But  those  wicked  men  must  soon  an- 
swer i>efore  the  Infinite  Judge  whose  sway  reaches  all,  both  the 
now  living  and  those  already  dead.  Those  godless  men  may 
dnig  you  before  their  tribunals;  yet  if  they  should  and  should 
even  take  your  lives,  your  case  would  ])e  tJie  more  like  that  of 
your  sufftM-ing  Lord,  dying  as  to  the  flesh,  but  living  gloriously  by 
and  through  the  S[tirit.  Such  seems  to  have  been  the  line  of 
Peter's  thought,  as  we  get  it  by  due  attention  to  the  preceding 
context.     Tlicre   is  not,  therefore,  the  least  occasion   and  by  no 


I.  PETER.^ — CHAP.    IV.  413 

means  any  necessity  for  supposing  that  the  "  dead  "  of  v.  6  must 
be  the  same  "dead  "  as  those  of  v.  5.  As  already  remarked,  Peter 
does  not  say  in  v.  6,  The  gospel  preached  to  the  dead — the  same 
dead  referred  to  just  before.  If  he  had  wished  and  meant  to  say 
this,  he  would  have  said  it  by  the  use  of  the  article  before  "dead 
or  by  some  still  stronger  expression — as  we  in  our  English  should 
say  at  least  the  dead — in   the   sense  of  those — the    same — dead 

ones. Again,  the  allusion  in  v.  5  to  the  final  judgment  was 

really  but  a  side-thought,  digressing  from  the  general  strain,  of  the 
whole  context,  and  for  this  reason,  we  should  be  misled  if  we 
were  to  infer  that  the  judgment  in  v.  6  must  be  the  same  as  that 
in  V.  5.  This  neglect  to  notice  the  general  strain  of  the  context 
throughout  this  long  passage  beginning  3  :  18  and  continuing 
throughout  chap.  4  has  been  a  principal  occasion  of  misinterpret- 
ing this  V.  6.  We  get  the  just  clew  to  Peter's  meaning  when  we 
hold  well  in  mind  the  great  drift  of  his  thought  throughout 
this  entire  passage.  Holding  this,  we  trace  a  sustained  analogy 
or  comparison  in  Peter's  thought  iDetween  the  case  of  Christ  on 
the  one  hand,  suffering  unto  death  at  the  hands  of  men,  yet  liv- 
ing with  only  the  more  glorious  life  and  power  from  God,  and  on 
the  other  hand  the  similar  experiences  of  his  persecuted  people. 

Yet  further,  observe  the  logical  connection  which  introduces 
V.  6  :  For  this  cause  was  the  gospel  preached  to  the  dead,  to  the 
end  that,  though  on  the  one  hand,  judged  by  men  as  to  the  flesh, 
on  the  other,  they  should  live  from  God  as  to  the  Spirit  or  by  his 
Spirit.^  This  was  the  design  and  also  the  result  of  preaching  the 
gospel  to  men;  viz.,  that  being  soundly  converted  to  God,  they 
might  stand  fearlessly  for  his  cause,  and  then  even  though  dying 
by  imperial  persecution,  they  should  yet  live  forever  all  the  more 
gloriously  before  God. Thus  this  construction  meets  all  the  de- 
mands of  the  words;  adjusts  itself  to  the  strongly  antithetic  rela- 
tion of  the  two  clauses ;  and  also  harmonizes  with  the  strikingly 
analogous  passage,  spoken  of  Christ  (3  :  18). 

(3.)  It  remains  to  complete  our  argument  by  reference  to  the 

following  context. The  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that  in  our 

interpretation  of  v.  6,  we  are  making  our  choice  between  these 
two  theories:  (a.)  The  gospel  preached  to  all  dead  souls  by  Christ 
going  down  to  Hades,  in  order  that,  though  judged  according  to 
men  in  the  flesh  [whatever  this  can  possibly  mean],  they  may  yet 
live  according  to  God  in  the  Spirit: — and  (b.)  The  gospel 
preached  to  all  men  but  illustrated  specially  in  the  case  of  Chris- 
tian martyrs  to  the  end  that,  having  been  adjudged  by  men  to 

*This  modification  as  to  the  word  "Spirit"  (TTvevjuan),  first  in 
3  :  18  and  then  consequently  in  4  :  6,  seems  to  be  demanded  in  3  :  18 
by  the  exigencies  of  the  case  (as  shown  in  my  notes  on  the  passage), 
and  therefore  is  admissible  here  because  this  verse  is  so  mani- 
festly shaped  in  imitation  of  that.  On  this  ground  we  are  author- 
ized to  construe  "  Spirit "  here  in  v.  6  to  refer  to  the  Divine  Spirit 
through  whom,  men  dying  for  Christ  in  the  flesh,  have  life  immor- 
tal through  God's  Spirit. 


414  I.  PETER. — CHAP.    IV. 

die  as  to  the  body,  on  the  human  earthly  side,  they  mi<2;ht  yet 
have  immortal  life,  blessedness,  on  the  divine  side  through  God's 
Spirit. Now  it  is  vital  to  our  argument  upon  these  rival  theo- 
ries to  ascertain  what  is  before  Peter's  mind — what  he  is  think- 
ing about — and  what  are  the  uppermost,  the  leading  points  of  his 
thought.  Especially  will  it  sustain  the  second  theory  (above 
put),  if  it  shall  appear  that  he  is  thinking  of  the  persecution  of 
Christian  martyrs — of  some  ''judgment''  befalling  them  from  hu- 
man tribunals,  somewhat  analogous  to  the  final  judgment  upon 
their  persecutors.  If  he  has  these  points  before  his  mind,  there 
can  be  no  rational  doubt  that  the  judgment  in  v.  6,  said  to  be  by 
men  and  reaching  the  body  (the  flesh),  is  rightly,  legitimately  re- 

ferrible  to  Christian   martyrs. The   drift   of  Peter's   thought 

must  be  learned,  not  only  from  the  preceding  context  (as  shown 
already)  but  from  the  following  context  also.  We  read  (v.  12  and 
onward) — "  Beloved,  think  it  not  strange  concerning  the  fiery 
trial  which  is  to  try  you,  etc. — but  rejoice  inasmuch  as  ye  are 
partakers  of  Christ's  sufferings" — which  shows  that  the  analogy 
between  Christ's  sufferings  and  theirs  is  present,  even  vividly,  to 
his  mind.      Beyond    all    dispute,    therefore,    he    is  thinking   of 

Christian  martyrdom. Much  to  our  present  purpose  let  it  be 

observed  that  Miis  reference  to  persecution  is  not  put  in  the  shape 
of  giving  new  information — stating  some  fact  not  known  and  not 
in  mind  before,  but  is  in  the  shape  of  an  allusion  to  what  is  al- 
ready well  known;  i.  e.,  the  words  assume  that  persecution  unto 
fire  and  death  is  already  before  the  mind.     Therefore,   we  are 

justified  in  supposing  it  to  be  referred  to  in  v.  6. Yet  further: 

"If  ye  be  reproached  for  the  name  of  Christ" — "blasphemed" 
was  the  Greek  word  in  v.  4,  translated  feebly — "  Speaking  evil  of 
you" — but  showing  that  there  and  here  the  same  thoughts  were 

still  present  in  mind. But  especially  mark  the  words  (v.  17); 

"  For  the  time  is  come  that  judgment  must  begin  at  the  house  of 
God  " — which  can  be  none  other  than  the  judgment  of  civil 
tribunals,  dooming  Christians  to  a  martyr's  death.  This  is  the 
same  word  as  the  being  ''judged  according  men  "  (v.  6)  and  cer- 
tainly goes  far  to  prove  that  the  judgment  there  is  that  by  wicked 
persecutors  against  Christian  martyrs,  because  it  shows  that  such 

a  judgment  is  before  his  mind. Nor  let  us  fail  to  notice  on  the 

other  hand  that  the  course  of  thought  throughout  this  chapter  4 
makes  not  the  remotest  allusion  (outside  of  the  supposed  refer- 
ence of  V.  6)  to  Christ  preaching  to  lost  spirits  in  Hades.  If 
Peter  said  and  meant  that  in  the  passage  (3 :  19,  20),  he  has  ut- 
terly forgotten  it  l^efore  he  begins  chapter  4.  Omitting  the  dis- 
puted clause  (v.  0)  of  preaching  to  some  "  dead,"  there  is  not 
another  whisper  on  that  sul)ject.  His  thought  drifts  utterly  away 
fi-oiM  that  subject  to  the  points  of  analogy  l)etwecn  Christ's  suffer- 
ings and  consequent  glory  on  the  one  hand,  and  those  of  his 
people  in  their  martyrdom    and  consequent  glory  on  the  other. 

Moreover,  in  all  this  context,  tiiore  is  not  even  the  faintest 

shade   of  the   modern,    favorite,  profoundly    cherished  theory  of 


I.   PETEK. — CHAP.    IV.  415 

"  eternal  hope  "  for  all  the  wicked.  Peter  gives  us  a  dark  picture 
(4:  2-4)  of  their  base,  vile  passions,  their  beastly  lusts;  perhaps 
designs  to  suggest  that  their  natural  hatred  of  the  godly  puts 
them  up  to  malicious,  deadly  persecution — a  fact  which  leads 
him  to  speak  of  their  near  impending  account  at  Christ's  judg- 
ment bar.  That  judgment  suggests  to  his  mind  the  somewhat 
analogous  judgment  which  "begins  at  the  house  of  God" — viz., 
the  persecuting  edicts  which  sought  for  the  martyr's  blood — 
which,  however,  are  to  him  under  God  a  discipline  for  heaven. 
This  again  brought  to  his  mind  by  contrast  the  far  more  fearful 
doom  of  the  ungodly  whom  no  mercy  shoAvn  on  earth  could  save, 
and  he  cries  out — "If  such  judgment  begins  at  the  house  of  God, 
what  shall  the  end  be  of  them  that  obey  not  the  gospel  of  God? 
And  if  the  righteous  scarcely  be  saved — only  with  great  diffi- 
culty— only  through  the  sore  discipline  of  suffering,  where  shall 

the  ungodly  and  the  sinner  appear  ?  " When  Peter  had  written 

these  words,  he  laid  down  his  pen  (we  may  suppose)  with  the 
feeling — l^hose  questions  are  forever  unanswerable  !  Who  can 
tell  what  hope  there  can  be  in  the  end  of  them  that  obey  not  the 
gospel  of  God?  Who  can  say  where  the  ungodly  and  the  sinner 
shall    ever  appear  again  before  the  all-righteous  Lord  God  of 

Hosts  ? Probably  it  never  occurred  to  him  that  in  future  ages 

men  would  arise  to  torture  his  words  into  the  sense  of  Christ 
preaching  "eternal  hope"  to  the  spirits  in  prison — of  Christ 
preaching  the  gospel  to  all  tlie  dead — so  that  though  judged  as  to 
the  body,  they  should  yet  all  live  as  to  their  souls !  He  did  not 
dream  that  men  would  spring  to  their  feet  to  answer  these  un- 
answerable questions  (v.  17,  18),  saying:  Hast  thou.  O  Peter,  so 
soon  forgotten  thine  own  answer,  that  Christ  himself  went  to 
hell  to  preach  to  them  eternal  hope ;  that  consequently  the  end 
of  them  that  obey  not  the  gospel  "will  be  nothing  more  serious 
than  another  probation — another  world  of  mercy?"  that  the 
question — "  Where  shall  the  ungodly  and  the  sinner  appear?"  has 
no  particular  terror  in  it,  inasmmch  as  they  have  only  to  hear 
another  message  of  "  eternal  hope"  and  have  another  chance  to 
"  obey  not  the  gospel  of  God!  " 

Returning  to  the  arguments  here  employed  to  determine  v.  6, 
I  beg  the  reader  to  consider  that  the  sources  whence  they  are 
drawn  are  entirely  legitimate.  The  meaning  of  the  words  used; 
the  force  of  an  obvious  and  even  certain  and  strong  antithesis 
wrought  into  the  very  constitution  of  the  passage ;  the  unques- 
tionable reference  to  a  similarly  constructed  passage  (3:  18); 
and  finally,  the  entire  drift  of  the  contest — the  great  thoughts  con- 
tinually present  to  the  writer's  mind; — these  are  the  legitimate 
sources  of  evidence  as  to  the  sense  of  this  verse.  These  sources 
may  have  been  but  imperfectly  explored  and  their  treasures  but 
imperfectly  exhumed  and  applied ;  but  it  is  idle  to  attempt  to 
decry  their  application  or  deny  the  force  of  the  evidence  they 
supply. 


416  I.   PETER. — CHAP.    IV. 

7.  But  the  end  of  all  things  is  at  hand:  be  ye  therefore 
sober,  and  watch  unto  prayer. 

The  most  obvious  sense  of  these  words,  their  apparent — we 
may  call  it  their  surface  meaning — is  that  the  end  of  this  earthly, 
probationary  state  was  near.  Consequently  the  question  comes 
up :  How  are  we  to  account  for  this  declaration  ?  Did  Peter 
know  this  by  revelation  from  God  ?  Or  did  he  hold  it  as  his 
personal  opinion,  formed  otherwise  than  under  inspiration  ?  Or 
was  it  rather  an  impression — a  sense  of  eternal  things  as  near, 
of  a  sort  which  involves  no  settled  belief  ? 

The  first  of  these  alternatives  we  must  certainly  reject: — (a.) 
Because  it  was  not  at  that  time  true  that  the  end  of  all  things 
Avas  near ;  and  God  could  never  have  given  by  inspiration  a  false 
view  of  the  time  of  this  final  end. {h.)  Because  Jesus  him- 
self said  to  his  disciples  (Acts  1 :  7)  :  "It  is  not  for  you  to  know 
the  times  and  the  seasons  which  the  Father  hath  put  in  his  own 
power" — words  which  w^ere  obviously  aimed  to  include  among 

lesser  events  this  greatest  possible  event  to  our  race. (c.)  Be" 

cause  Jesus  declared  (Mark  13 :  32)  with  special  reference  to 
"the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man  in  his  glory:"  "Of  that  day 
and  hour  know^eth  no  man;  no,  not  the  angels  which  are  in 
heaven,  neither  the  Son,  but  the  F'ather." — ^-It  was  never  the 
divine  policy,  therefore,  to  teach  even  the  most  favored  apostle 
ivhen  the  end  of  all  things  should  be. 

As  to  the  second  alternative,  Peter  may  possibly  have  held  this 
as  his  personal  opinion,  not  dependent  for  it  at  all  upon  revela- 
tion from  God. 

Paul  manifestly  held  such  personal  opinions  which  he  distin- 
guished broadly  from  things  taught  him  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
In  that  group  of  delicate  questions  treated  in  1  Cor.  7:  Paul  made 
this  distinction  :  "I  speak  this  by  permission,  not  of  command- 
ment (v.  6).  Now  concerning  virgins,  I  have  no  commandment 
of  the  Lord,  yet  I  give  my  judgment,"  etc. 

Now  I  by  no  means  affirm  that  Peter's  supposed  view  as  to  the 
manner  of  Christ's  final  coming  falls  under  this  law  of  apostolic 
thought.  If  it  did,  he  should  (like  his  brother  Paul)  have  said 
so,  and  thus  have  made  a  broad  distinction  between  what  God 
had  taught  him  and  what  he  held  only  as  his  personal  opinion. 

The  lust  alternative  seems  to  me  less  objectionable  than  any 
other,  viz.,  that  he  spake  of  the  end  of  all  things  as  near  because 
such  was  the  impression,  the  sense,  of  eternal  things  upon  his 
soul.  He  knew  that  the  time  of  his  own  death  was  near.  Jesus 
had  revealed  to  him  that  he  would  die  a  nuirtyr's  death.  The 
waves  of  bloody  persecution  were  even  then  (probably)  surging 

over  the  land,  and  to  his  thought  his  own   end  was  near. 

Moreover,  he  had  just  ])cen  speaking  of  the  dread  account  which 
wicked  persecutors  must  rend(!r  at  the  bar  of  Christ.  The  pres- 
ence of  their  awful  crimes  and  fearful  guilt  impressed  him  with 
the  feeling  that  their  day  of  account  outjkt  to  be  and  must  be 


I.  PETEE. — CHAP.   IV.  417 

close  at  hand.  Moreover,  scenes  of  martyrdom  would  naturally 
bring  the  eternal  world  exceedingly  near  to  human  hearts — make 
that  world  seem  near  in  reality.  Experience  amply  sustains  this 
as  a  law  of  the  human  mind — that  strong  impressions  of  the 
solemnity,  the  majesty,  the  fearfulness,  or  on  the  other  hand,  the 
glory  of  the  world  to  come,  make  that  world  seem  to  be  exceed- 
ingly near.  It  may  have  been  mainly  under  the  power  of  this 
law  of  mind  brought  into  its  full  activity  by  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances of  the  hour,  that  Peter  wrote — "The  end  of  all  things  is 
at  hand." 

The  exhortation  to  sobriety  and  to  watchfulness  unto  prayer  is 
eminently  sensible,  appropriate,  forcible.  "Be  sober" — in  the 
sense — thoughtful,  self-possessed,  keeping  the  full  command  of 
all  your  powers;  desisting  from  all  excitements,  avoiding  all  di- 
verting influences,  which  a  deep  sense  of  eternal  things  near  at 
hand  should  rule  out. 

8.  And  above  all  things  have  fervent  charity  among  your- 
selves :  for  charity  shall  cover  the  multitude  of  sins. 

"Charity''  here  translates  the  common  and  legitimate  word  of 
the  New  Testament  for  love  [agape].     "Love  among  yourselves" 

is  love  of  the  brethren,  brotherly  love  toward  all  the  saints. 

The  words — "Cover  the  multitude  of  sins"  are  identically  the 
same  which  close  the  epistle  of  James — said  by  him  to  be  a  re- 
sult of  converting  a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  ways  and  saving 
his  soul  from  death.  Peter  says  love  does  this  very  thing. 
Is  this  his  interpretation  or  modification  of  what  James  has 
said  ?  Does  he  mean  to  suggest  that  real  love  w' ill  put  one  to 
Christian  labor  for  the  salvation  of  souls,  and  in  this  way  cover 
many  sins  ?  This  seems  more  probable  than  the  other  possible 
supposition,  viz.,  that  love  overlooks  the  sins  of  men,  leading  to 
the  most  charitable  construction  possible  of  what  may  seem 
wrong.  The  real  covering  of  sins  finds  its  most  just  sense  and 
therefore  its  safest  interpretation  in  harmony  with  James — in 
that  forgiveness  which  blots  them  out  from  the  very  book  and  eye 
of  the  great  God. 

9.  Use  hospitality  one  to  another  without  grudging. 

10.  As  every  man  hath  received  the  gift,  even  so  minister 
the  same  one  to  another,  as  good  stewards  of  the  manifold 
grace  of  God. 

11.  If  any  man  speak,  let  him  speak  as  the  oracles  of  God  ; 
if  any  man  minister,  let  him  do  it  as  of  the  ability  which  Go<^l 
giveth:  that  God  in  all  things  may  be  glorified  through 
Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  be  praise  and  dominion  for  ever  and 
ever. 

Hospitality  has  always  been  one  of  the  Oriental  virtues;  so  also 
was  it  eminently  one  of  the  early  Christian  virtues,  warmly  in- 
culcated by  the  apostles  : — by  Paul,  Rom.  12  :  13,  and  1  Tim.  3 :  2, 


418  I.  PETER. — CHAP.  IV. 

and  Tit.  1:8;  and  by  the  writer  to  the  Hebrews,  13 :  2. Let 

them  exercise  hospitality,  heartily,  in  love,  and  not  as  under  the 
compulsion  of  usage,  or  even  of  Christian  law.  So  should  they 
use  freely  such  temporal  supplies  as  under  God's  good  providence 
they  might  have  at  command. — This  seems  to  suggest  another 
analogous  class  of  resources  for  doing  good — the  charismata — the 
spiritual  endowments  of  the  apostolic  age.  These  were  various 
in  kind;  are  somewhat  fully  defined  by  Paul  in  Rom.  12:  6-8, 
and  in  1  Cor.  12:  4-11.  In  these  passages  Paul  makes  these 
special  points,  viz :  That  these  gifts  are  bestowed  in  great  diver- 
sity, yet  all  by  the  same  divine  Spirit;  that  this  diversity  was 
designed  to  meet  the  diverse  wants  of  the  Christian  church  for 
instruction  and  impression ;  also,  to  overcome  the  obstacles  lying 
in  the  strange,  unknown  languages  of  various  nationalities ;  and 
not  least,  to  cultivate  and  develop  the  noble  law  of  the  Christian 
social  life — every  man  to  use  his  special  gifts,  however  humble  or 
however  noble,  for  the  good  of  his  brethren  and  of  the  whole 
church,  that  God  may  be  glorified  in  all.  The  law  of  gospel  be- 
nevolence— every  man  working  as  he  may  be  able  for  the  good 
of  every  other  man  and  of  the  whole  body — lifts  man  upward 
spiritually  toward  the  benevolence  of  God  himself.  We  can  say 
of  it  nothing  less  than  that  it  is  morally  sublime.  How  does  it 
glorify  man's  social  nature  and  prepare  him  for  companionship 
with  the  angels  of  light !  What  so  noble  as  to  minister,  to  serve, 
being  good  stewards  of  the  various,  diversified  gifts  of  God ! — 
So  Jesus  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  even  to 
the  giving  of  his  life  a  ransom.     How  should  his  example  inspire 

his  people! The  ultimate,  supreme  end  of  all  is  here  brought 

to  view — "that  God  in  all  things  may  be  glorified  through  Jesus 
Christ."  All  real  benevolence  in  his  people  serves  to  set  forth 
God's  own  benevolence  and  so  to  do  him  honor.  No  end  of  life 
can  be  more  noble  and  sublime  than  this. 

12.  Beloved,  think  it  not  strange  concerning  the  fiery 
trial  which  is  to  try  you  as  though  some  strange  thing  hap- 
pened unto  you  : 

13.  But  rejoice,  inasmuch  as  ye  are  partakers  of  Christ's 
sufferings ;  that,  when  his  glory  shall  be  revealed,  ye  may 
be  glad  also  with  exceeding  joy. 

It  has  been  already  suggested  that  persecution  is  referred  to 
here,  not  as  a  new  subject,  much  less  as  a  piece  of  new  informa- 
tion; but  as  a  fact  present  and  ever  pressing  upon  their  thought. 
The  fact  underlies  both  this  chapter  and  most  of  the  chapter  pre- 
ceding.  Let  them  not  tiiink  it  unaccountable  that  God  should 

leave  his  people  to  suffer  martyrdom — God  who  is  so  mighty  to 
crush  his  enemies;  so  able  to  save  his  friends;  so  tender  of  his 
children  ;  so  utterly  out  of  all  sympathy  with  the  Neros  of  per- 
secuting Rome !  Great  and  good  ends  are  to  be  answered  by 
these  fiery  trials. — In  so  far,  therefore,  as  they  may  share  in 
common  with  Ciirist  his  bitter  sufferings,  let   them    rejoice;   for 


I.  PETER. — CHAP.  IV,  419 

they  will  the  better  appreciate  what  he  endured  for  them,  will 
love  him  the  more,  and  be  the  more  beloved  of  him;  and  (as 
Peter  suggests),  in  the  revelation  of  his  glory  at  the  great  day, 
they  will  rejoice  with  glad  exultation! 

14.  If  ye  be  reproached  for  the  name  of  Christ,  happy 
are  ye ;  for  the  spirit  of  glory  and  of  God  resteth  upon  you : 
on  their  part  he  is  evil  spoken  of,  but  on  your  part  he  is 
glorified. 

15.  But  let  none  of  you  suffer  as  a  murderer,  or  as  a  thief, 
or  as  an  evil-doer,  or  as  a  busy-body  in  other  men's  matters. 

16.  Yet  if  any  man  suffer  as  a  Christian,  let  him  not  be 
ashamed  ;  but  let  him  glorify  God  on  this  behalf 

To  be  reproached  for  the  name  of  Christ  would  assume  that 
they  were  known  to  bear  that  name,  had  openly  espoused  it,  and 
also  that  they  lived  in  some  measure  at  least  worthily  of  that  name. 
These  facts  would  carry  with  them  blessings  and  be  grounds  of 
joy.  The  Spirit  of  God  would  rest  on  them,  abiding  in  their 
congenial  souls,  and  filling  their  cup  of  joy.  God  will  never 
forsake  the  people  that  truly  honor  his  name,  truly  represent  his 

cause,  and  nobly  suffer  for  his  sake.     When  did  he  ever? But 

that  one  who  bears  the  name  Christian  should  suffer  for  wrong- 
doing, for  crimes  that  are  scandalous  even  in  the  eye  of  the  un- 
godly, how  sad!  how  dishonoring  to  God! In  v.  16  the  better 

text  of  the  last  clause  reads — Let  them  glorify  God  in  this  name; 
i.  e.,  in  sustaining  worthily  the  name  ''  Christian^ 

17.  For  the  time  is  come  that  judgment  must  begin  at  the 
house  of  God :  and  if  it  first  begin  at  us,  what  shall  the  end 
he  of  them  that  obey  not  the  gospel  of  God  ? 

18.  And  if  the  righteous  scarcely  be  saved,  where  shall 
the  ungodly  and  the  sinner  appear  ? 

19.  Wherefore  let  them  that  suffer  according  to  the  will 
of  God  commit  the  keeping  of  their  souls  to  him  in  well 
doing,  as  unto  a  faithful  Creator. 

The  first  question  respects  the  sense  in  which  "judgment  begins 
at  the  house  [church]  of  God." — It  can  not  be  in  the  sense  of 
retribution,  condemnation;  for  "there  is  now  no  condemnation 
to  them  who  are  in  Christ  Jesus"  (Rom.  8:1).  It  can  not  mean 
that  a  lesser  measure  of  retribution  falls  on  them,  but  a  greater 
measure  upon  the  ungodly.  The  suffering  that  is  j)ermitted  of 
God  upon  his  people  in  the  present  life  is  never  retribution,  con- 
demnation. Therefore  the  sense  must  be,  suffering  in  the  line 
of  discipline,  and  for  the  ends  of  refining,  purifying,  their  souls. 
In  this  passage  Peter  probably  has  special  rejference  to  official 
judgments  passed  against  them  by  persecuting  powers.  Imperial 
edicts  of  persecution  were  issued  about  this  time  from  Rome. 
These  were  properly  called  "judgments,"  for  they  were  imperial 
decrees   from   the   ruling  power  of  the  nation.     Looked  at  from 


420  I.  PETRE. — CHAP.  IV. 

their  human  side,  they  were  judgments  then  beginning,  in  this 
sense;  seen  on  their  divine  side,  they  were  God's  wholesome, 
though  stern  discipline  to  purify  their  souls  in  the  furnace  of 
fiery  trial. — The  time  had  come  that  "judgment  should  begin  at 
the  house  of  God  "  in  the  sense  in  which  Jesus  has  said  (John 
16  :  2) :  "The  time  cometh  that  whosoever  killeth  you  will  think 
that  he  doeth  God  service."  "The  time  is  come,"  etc.,  signifies 
that  a  fierce  storm  of  persecution  was  then  breaking  upon  them. 
This  expression  could  not  apply  to  the  ordinary  forms  of  disci- 
pline from  God  in  his  providence,  for  these  are  never  out  of  time 
— are  always  present  in  some  of  their  varying  forms. — Under 
this  construction  of  the  passage  Christians  might  be  said  (v.  6) 
to  be  "judged  as  to  men  in  the  flesh,  yet  to  live  as  to  God  in  the 
spirit." 

The  next  question  vital  to  the  moral  force  of  the  passage  is  this: 
What  is  the  point  of  the  argument  and  appeal,  and  wherein  lies 
the  pertinence  of  the  great  questions  here  put  and  pressed?  I 
suggest  this:  "Judgment  beginning  at  the  house  of  God "  sig- 
nifies on  its  Godward  side  how  much  it  costs  to  prepare  men  for 
heaven ;  how  much  discipline ;  how  much  suffering ;  how  much 
patient  and  apparently  stern  and  severe  purifying  men  must  needs 
experience  and  must  take  kindly,  submissively,  in  order  to  be 
fitted  for  the  pure  world  above.  If  this  be  so,  what  shall  the  end 
be  of  those  who  obey  not  the  gospel,  who  never  yield  their  hearts 
to  its  claims,  never  accept  in  any  wise  its  regenerating  influence, 
never  bow  submissively  to  its  discipline  ?  What  but  ruin  can  be 
the  end  of  those  whom  no  gospel  love  can  reach  to  save — no  gos- 
pel power  for  regenerating  depraved  natures  can  act  upon,  be- 
cause they  repel  it;  whom,  in  short,  none  of  God's  appliances  for 
preparing  human  souls  for  eternal  blessedness  have  ever  touched 
to  any  purpose,  and  never  can  ? 

So  again:  "If  the  righteous  scarcely  be  saved" — i.  e.,  be  saved 
only  through  long  processes  of  discipline,  where  shall  the  un- 
godly and  the  sinner  appear?  Where  will  they  find  place  before 
God — all  unwashed,  unredeemed,  unsaved  from  their  pollutions 
of  flesh  and  spirit? — These  seem  to  be  the  special  points  of  these 
unanswerable  questions. 

Therefore,  let  those  who  sufier  according  to  the  will  of  God — 
under  his  permissive  providence,  for  these  high  and  indispensable 
ends  of  purification,  discipline,  ripeness  for  heaven — commit  the 
keeping  [and  care]  of  their  souls  in  well-doing  to  the  faithful 
Creator. No  Greek  text  has  the  words  "  to  him."  The  im- 
proved text  omits  the  word  for  "as"  before  "faithful  Creator." 
Closely  translated  the  verse  would  read — Therefore  let  those  who 
suffer  according  to  tlie  will  of  God  commit  their  souls  in  well-do- 
ing to  a  Creator  ever  faithful. "  Creator  "  is  here  in  the  sense 

of  the  new,  the  spiritual  creation  where])y  souls  are  new-born  to 
(lod.  8o  Paul  says  (2  Cor.  5:  17) — "If  any  man  be  in  Christ 
thore  is  a  new  creation  (a  xairr^  xttcrni)."  In  calling  God  a  "  faith- 
ful Creator  "  of  the    new  spiritual   life,  Peter  no  doubt  is  at  one 


I.  PETEE. — CHAP.  V.  421 

with  Paul  (Phil.  1:  6)  in  being  confident  of  this  very  thing,  "that 
he  who  hath  begun  a  good  work  in  you  will  perform  it  mito  the 
day  of  Christ  Jesus."  To  such  a  "faithful  Creator"  Christians 
may  well  commit  the  discipline  and  nurture  of  their  souls,  care- 
ful only  on  their  own  part  that  it  be  "  in  well-doing." 


CHAPTER   V. 

Miscellaneous  counsels  in  closing  paragraphs.  He  exhorts  hig 
brother-elders  (v.  1-4) ;  enjoins  submission  of  the  younger  breth- 
ren to  the  elder  and  urges  humility  as  pleasing  to  God  and  the 
condition  of  future  exaltation  (v.  5,  6) ;  the  casting  of  care  upon 
God  (v.  7) ;  warns  against  the  assaults  of  Satan  (v.  8,  9) ;  commits 
them  to  the  God  of  all  grace  (v.  10,  11) ;  writes  by  Silvanus 
(v.  12) ;  with  salutations  from  the  church  at  Babylon  and  from 
Mark,  his  son  (v.  12,  13) ;  with  final  greetings  and  benedictions 
(v.  14). 

1.  The  elders  which  are  among  you  I  exhort,  who  am  also 
an  elder,  and  a  witness  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  also 
a  partaker  of  the  glory  that  shall  be  revealed : 

2.  Feed  the  flock  of  God  which  is  among  you,  taking  the 
oversight  thereof,  not  by  constraint,  but  willingly;  not  for 
filthy  lucre,  but  of  a  ready  mind  ; 

3.  Neither  as  being  lords  over  God's  heritage,  but  being 
ensamples  to  the  flock. 

4.  And  when  the  chief  Shepherd  shall  appear,  ye  shall 
receive  a  crown  of  glory  that  fadeth  not  away. 

Peter  writes  to  the  elders  as  a  brother-elder,  himself  in  com- 
mon with  the  aged  now  far  advanced  in  years,  and  also  sharing 
with  them  the  ofiicial  rank  of  elders  in  the  church.  The  context 
favors  the  official  idea,  since  it  enjoins  feeding  the  flock  of  God 
among  you,  i.  e.,  under  your  care.  Peter  was  also  one  of  the 
original  witnesses  to  the  sufferings  and  resurrection  of  Christ — 
this  being  one  most  important  function  of  the  apostleship.  (See 
Acts  1  :  21,  22).  In  anticipation  he  also  was  to  share  in  common 
that  wonderful  glory  about  to  be  revealed.  To  him  this  revelation 
of  the  heavenly  glory  was  near.     It  not  only  seemed  to  be  so,  but 

it  was  actually  near  in  time. In  v.  2  the  better  text  omits  the 

words — "  taking  the  oversight  thereof"  [acting  the  bishop].  They 
are  not  necessary  to  the  sense.  It  was  in  point  to  exhort  them 
to  do  this,  not  of  compulsion,  but  of  a  free  heart  toward  God 


422  I.    PETEK. — CHAP.  V. 

(these  last  words — "toward  God" — being  added  in  the  better 
manuscripts);  not  for  base  gain,  but  of  a  prompt  spirit.  This  is 
like  Paul's  recommendation  of  his  beloved  Timothy  (Phil.  2:  19, 
20) ;  "  one  who  will  naturally  care  for  your  state  ;  "  not  of  those 
who  seek  their  own,  but  one  who  seeks  the  things  of  Christ. 
I'aul  and  Peter  concur  in  commending  the  elders  who  do  their 
work  because  they  love  it,  and  because  their  hearts  are  with  and 
UiY  Christ.  Notice  that  "  lucre"  is  not  spoken  of  with  much 
honor  in  this  connection  as  the  motive  for  the  Christian  pastor's 

service.     He  should  have  motives,  purer,  higher  than  that. In 

V.  5,  the  first  noticeable  thing  is  that  the  Vatican  manuscript  omits 
the  entire  verse.  This  manuscript  has  lain  in  the  archives  and 
keeping  of  the  Vatican  at  Rome  from  the  fourth  century  far  into 
the  nineteenth,  never  open  to  the  literary  and  Christian  world 
till  A.  D.  1857.  The  reasons  for  this  almost  invincible  seclusion 
and  close  confinement  have  not  been  obvious. 

Next  as  to  the  sentiment  of  the  verse : — It  testifies  suggestively 
to  Peter's  knowledge  of  human  nature  that  he  should  feel  the 
propriety  and  importance  of  admonishing  his  brother  elders 
against  unhallowed  ambition  and  love  of  power.  Probably  he  re- 
membered these  words  from  his  Master's  lips  (Matt.  20 :  25) : — 
"  Ye  know  that  the  rulers  of  the  Gentiles  exercise  lordship  over 
them  ;  but  it  shall  not  be  so  among  you."  The  ftxr  nobler  prin- 
ciple is  that  of  being  examples  to  the  flock.  In  all  the  activities 
and  all  the  spirit  of  their  lives,  let  them  stand  before  their  people 
as  models  both  in  the  moralities  of  the  external  life  and  in  the 
living  piety  of  the  heart.  So  living,  when  the  Chief  Shepherd 
should  appear,  the  unfading  crown  should  be  their  reward. 

5.  Likewise,  ye  younger,  submit  yourselves  unto  the  elder. 
Yea,  all  of  you  be  subject  one  to  another,  and  be  clothed 
with  humility  :  for  God  resisteth  the  proud,  and  giveth  grace 
to  the  humble. 

Due  submission  of  the  younger  to  the  elder  is  beautiful  in 
spirit ;  admirable  for  its  deference  to  the  wisdom  and  experience 
of  the  aged.  AVc  need  not  suppose  that  Peter  would  press  it  to 
the  extent  of  servility,  nor  to  any  improper  restraint  upon   free 

thought. In  the  second  clause,  the  three  oldest    manuscripts 

omit  the  word  translated  "  l)e  subject"  [y-otaaoo^ivoi],  leaving  it 
thus  :  Let  all  adorn  themselves  with  humility  toward  each  other. 
The  verl)  translated  "  clothed  "  seems  to  carry  in  it  the  sense  of 
a  beautiful  adornment;  and  justly.  "For  God  resisteth  the 
proud,  l)ut  giveth  grace  [his  favor]  to  the  humble,"  corresponds 
with  James  4:  G.  VVhioh,  if  either,  imitates  or  (juotes  the  other, 
it  may  be  impossible  to  say;  nor  is  it  important  to  decide.  The 
sentiment  is  worthy  of  any  apostle. 

6.  Hum])le  yourselves  therefore  under  the  mighty  hand 
of  God,  that  he  may  exalt  you  in  due  time  ; 


I.    PETER. — CHAP.   V.  423 

7.  Casting  all  your  care  upon  him ;  for  lie  caretli  for  you. 

The  first  clause  resembles  James  4 :  10 — the  sentiment  being 
expanded  more  fully.  That  God  loves  to  exalt  to  honor  those 
who  walk  humbly  before  him  is  made  strong  and  sublimely  grand 
in  Isaiah  (57:  15) :  "  Thus  saith  the  High  and  Lofty  One  who  in- 
habiteth  eternity,  whose  name  is  Holy ;  I  dwell  in  the  high  and 
holy  place;  with  him  also  that  is  of  a  contrite  and  humble  spirit." 
Also  (66 :  2) — "  To  this  man  will  I  look,  even  to  him  that  is  poor 
and  of  a  contrite  spirit,  and  who  trembleth  at  my  word."  To  all 
such  the  time  for  being  lifted  up  will  surely  come. 

It  is  not  perhaps  entirely  clear  what  relations  of  thought  this 
precept — "  cast  your  care  upon  God  " — bears  to  the  foregoing  in- 
junction of  humility;  yet  perhaps  Peter  assumes  that  the  proud 
man,  standing  sensitively  for  the  defense  of  his  fancied  rights 
and  honors,  would  be  much  wiser  if  he  were  to  commit  his  case 
and  all  his  care  for  it  to  God.  Thus  the  precept  enjoining  hu- 
mility under  all  God's  dispensations  carries  with  it  and  involves 

the  casting  of  all  one's  care  upon  the  Lord. Be  the  connection, 

however,  what  it  may,  the  precept  is  precious  ;  finds  in  all  human 
lives  myriad  opportunities  for  application ;  brings  peace  to  many 
an  otherwise  troubled,  anxious  spirit;  and  gives  to  God's  people 
unnumbered  opportunities  to  know  in  their  sweet  experience  the 

never-ceasing  care  of  their  Father  in  heaven. The  saints  of 

old  were  by  no  means  strangers  to  this  sentiment  and  experience 
as  may  be  seen  in  David: — "  Commit  thy  way  to  the  Lord ;  trust 
also  in  him;  and  he  will  bring  it  to  pass"  (Ps.  37:  5):  and 
" Cast  thy  burden  on  the  Lord,  and  he  will  sustain  thee"  (Ps. 
55:  22). 

8.  Be  sober,  be  vigilant;  because  your  adversary  the 
devil,  as  a  roaring  lion,  walketh  about,  seeking  whom  he 
may  devour: 

9.  Whom  resist  steadfast  in  the  faith,  knowing  that  the 
same  afflictions  are  accomplished  in  your  brethren  that  are 
in  the  world. 

"  Seeking  some  one  to  devour  "  is  the  more  accurate  transla- 
tion.    Devour,  swallow  up,  engulf  in  utter  ruin — as  if  the  lion 

suggested  his  swallowing  his  victim  whole. The  devil,  always 

your  adversary,  your  natural  enemy,  who  will  ruin  your  souls  if 
he  can  and  may.  Did  Peter  remember  his  own  bitter  experience, 
how  Christ  had  said  to  him — "Satan  hath  desired  to  have  thee 
that  he  may  sift  thee  as  wheat;  but  I  have  prayed  for  thee  that 
thy  faith  fail  not;"  and  how  near  he  came  to  that  fearful  doom 
of  being  swallowed  up  by  the  cruel  and  crafty  adversary  of  his 
soul  ?  "Peter  knew  well  what  advice  to  give  his  brethren  exposed 
to  Satan.  Resist  him,  says  he,  steadfast  in  the  faith.  Think  not 
that  your  case  is  peculiar — worse  than  that  of  other  Christians. 
Rather  yours  is  but  the  common  lot.      The  same  afilictions  are 


424  I.    PETER. — CHAP.  V. 

experienced  in  full  measure  (so  the  Greek  verb)  by  all  the 
brotherhood  of  believers.  He  seems  to  refer  to  the  afflictions  con- 
nected "with  persecution.  But  in  ages  of  no  bloody  persecution, 
Satan  finds  other  avenues  of  assault^  No  Christian  need  expect 
exemption.  His  safety  lies  in  unceasing  watchfulness  and  per- 
petual resistance,  with  unfaltering  steadfastness  and  faith  in 
Christ. 

^  10.  But  the  God  of  all  grace,  who  hath  called  us  unto 
his  eternal  glory  by  Christ  Jesus,  after  that  ye  have  suffered 
awhile,  make  you  perfect,  stablish,  strengthen,  settle  you, 

11.  To  him  he  glory  and  dominion  for  ever  and  ever. 
Amen. 

But  [you  need  not  fear],  for  the  God  of  all  grace — the  same 
who  hath  called  you  unto  his  eternal  glory  in  Christ  and  who 
will  by  no  means  leave  his  work  undone — will  surely — ye  having 
suffered  but  a  little  time — make  you  perfect,  firm,  strong,  well- 
grounded.  These  verbs  are  future  rather  than  optative — a  pre- 
diction or  assertion  of  what  will  be,  rather  than  a  prayer  that  it 
may^  be.  Peter  was  confident  as  to  the  certainty  of  God's 
gracious  help,  and  therefore  could  intelligently  and  most  heartily 
ascribe  to  him  all  dominion  [power]  forever.  Some  of  the  older 
manuscripts  omit  the  word  for  "  glory."  Power  is  plainly  the 
leading  idea.  His  thought  is  upon  that  marvelous  power  which 
God  manifests  in  giving  perfection,  firmness,  strength  and  stead- 
fastness to  all  his  tempted  people. 

12.  By  Silvanus,  a  faithful  brother  unto  you,  as  I  sup- 
pose,^ I  have  written  briefly,  exhorting,  and  testifying  that 
this  is  the  true  grace  of  God  wherein  ye  stand. 

13.  The  church  that  is  at  Babylon,  elected  together  with 
you,  saluteth  you  ;  and  so  doth  Marcus  my  son. 

14.  Greet  ye  one  another  with  a  kiss  of  charity.  Peace 
be  with  you  all  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus.     Amen. 

Silvanus  is  another  form  of  the  name  Silas.  Noticeably  the 
name  is  uniformly  Silas  in  the  Acts;  Silvanus  in  the  Epistles. 
Probably  this  is  the  same  Silas  who  appears  often  in  the  history 
of  Paul's  labors,  prominent  in  the  great  Jerusalem  Council  (Acts 
15);  witli   Paul  at  Philippi  and  onward.      By  him  Peter  sends 

this  letter   to   the   churches  wliom    he  addresses. The  words, 

'^'as  I  suppose"  look  toward  the  word  "faithful,"  leaving  us  to* 
judge  whether  he  means,  faithful  and  true  in  his  general  Chris- 
tian character,  or  merely  faitliful  in  yon — one  who  may  be 
trusted  to  do  his  service  in  good  faith  as  the  bearer  of  this  letter. 
The  latter  I  take  to  be  the  sense. The  point  of  Peter's  testi- 
mony is  that  this  grace  in  which  they  stood,  on  which  they  were 
reposing,  is  the  true,  genuine,  gospel  grace.  It  is  no  myth,  no 
mere  supposition  or  fancy,  but  the  genuine  gospel  of  the  Great  God. 


I.  PETER. — CHAP.  V.  425 

In  the  opening  of  his  epistle  (1 :  2)  Peter  had  recognized  the 
strangers  to  whom  he  wrote  as  "  elect."    Here  he  says  the  church 

at  Babylon  is  elect,  equally,  jointly,  with  themselves. On  the 

clause  "  Marcus  my  son,"  we  have  the  question  to  settle  whether 
this  be  a  lineal  son,  or  a  son  in  the  faith  and  love  of  the  gospel, 
the  word  "son"  indicating  special  affection  as  for  a  younger 
Christian  brother.  Paul  uses  the  same  word  of  Timothy  (2  Tim. 
1:  2) — "To  Timothy,  my  dearly  beloved  son."  The  current 
opinion  is  that  Mark  is  called  "son"  here  in  the  same  sense. 
We  have  an  allusion  to  this  Mark  (probably)  in  Acts  12 :  12. 


THE  SECOND  EPISTLE  OF  PETER. 


CHAPTER    I. 


With  only  the  most  simple  introduction  of  himself  as  both 
servant  and  apostle  of  Christ,  Peter  addresses  all  who  have  ob- 
tained the  same  precious  faith,  praying  for  their  greater  grace 
and  peace  (1,  2),  most  abundant  provision  for  this  having  been 
made  in  the  revealed  knoveledge  of  God  and  of  his  gospel  and 
by  means  of  exceedingly  great  promises,  all  looking  toward  be- 
coming like  God  and  dead  to  sin  (3,  4).  By  successive  stages 
advancing  from  grace  to  grace  (5-7) ;  such  progress  insuring 
fruitfulness  in  divine  knowledge,  while  the  lack  of  these  graces 
implies  blindness  and  mental  stupidity  (8,  9).  But  on  the  other 
hand  unceasing  diligence  guarantees  salvation  and  easy  admission 
to  the  heavenly  kingdom  (10,  11):  Peter  writes  as  one  con- 
sciously near  death  (12-14);  would  leave  them  some  words  to  be 
remembered  (15);  words  confirmed  in  his  case  by  the  scenes  and 
voices  of  the  transfiguration  (16-18),  and  also  by  the  ancient 
prophecies  indited  by  the  Holy  Ghost  (19-21). 

1.  Simon  Peter,  a  servant  and  an  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ, 
to  them  that  have  obtained  like  precious  faith  with  us 
through  the  righteousness  of  God  and  our  Savior  Jesus 
Christ: 

2.  Grace  and  peace  be  multiplied  unto  you  through  the 
knowledge  of  God,  and  of  Jesus  our  Lord, 

Comparing  Peter's  brief  introduction  of  himself  in  this  second 
epistle  with  that  in  his  first,  we  may  notice  two  points  added 
here,  viz.,  the  name  Simon  in  addition  to  Peter,  and  the  epithet 
"servant"  in  addition  to  "apostle."  Tliese  variations  in  his  de- 
scription of  himself  should  not  militate  against  the  supposition 
tliat  the  same  Peter  wrote  both  epistles.  No  writer  should  be 
held  ti)  any  stereotyped  method  of  describing  himself 

Another  diffiirence  more  important  is  the  omission  of  all  refer- 
ence to  geogniphical  localities.  The  provinces  named  in  the  first 
epistle  are  omitted  iiere — yet  probaljly  should  be  assumed,  lie 
addresses  all  Christians  who  have  obtained  the  same  precious 
faith  which  himself  and  his  associates  have  enjoyed.  This  allu- 
sion to  the  gospel  faith  as  iilways  and  every-where  "precious"  i.s 
at  once  simple  and  beautiful. 

(420) 


II.    PETEE. — CHAP.    I.  427 

For  the  English  phrase — "through  the  righteousness" — we 
have  in  Greek — "in  the  righteousness,"  these  words  following 
immediately  after  the  word  faith — thus  raising  the  question 
whether  he  would  connect  "in  the  righteousness"  with  "faith," 
or  with  the  "  obtaining "  of  faith.  In  the  former  construction 
the  sense  would  be,  faith  in  this  righteousness  as  something  be- 
lieved; in  the  latter,  the  obtaining  of  faith  would  be  ascribed  to 
this  righteousness,  as  our  English  version  has  it — obtaining  faith 
through  the  righteousness,  etc.  The  former  is  supported  by  the 
close  location  of  the  word  faith  to  this  clause — "  in  the  righteous- 
ness." It  is  also  the  usual  sense  of  the  preposition  "  in"  [51/]. 
Yet  either  construction  is  admissible  and  either  sentiment  true. 

Righteousness   is  probably  here   in  the  sense  of  clemency, 

kindness,  mercy,  rather  than  justice. May  grace  and  peace — 

all  best  spiritual  blessings — abound  to  you  by  means  of  knowing 
God  and  Jesus  our  Lord.  Peter  doubtless  remembers  the  words 
of  his  Lord — "This  is  life  eternal,  that  they  may  know  Thee,  the 
only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  thou  hast  sent"  (John 
17:  3).  All  progress  and  all  abounding  in  the  graces  of  the 
Christian  life  must  in  the  nature  of  the  case  come  through  know- 
ing God  and  his  Son. 

3.  According  as  his  divine  power  hath  given  unto  us  all 
things  that  pertain  unto  life  and  godliness,  through  the 
knowledge  of  him  that  hath  called  us  to  glory  and  virtue ; 

4.  Whereby  are  given  unto  us  exceeding  great  and  precious 
promises;  that  by  these  ye  might  be  partakers  of  the  divine 
nature,  having  escaped  the  corruption  that  is  in  the  world 
through  lust. 

In  v.  3,  the  precise  sense  and  relation  of  the  first  Greek  word 
[uicf],  "  according  as,"  calls  for  special  notice ;  the  more  so  be- 
cause Tischendorf  begins  here  a  new  paragraph,  while  our 
English  version  connects  it  closely  with  the  verse  preceding.  It 
seems  to  me  that  the  line  of  thought  which  connects  this  with 
the  preceding  verse  is  essentially  unbroken,  and  of  this  sort. 
This  prayer  for  abounding  grace,  through  the  knowledge  of  God 
and  of  Christ,  is  entirely  legitimate,  reasonable, — because  it  is  in 
accord  with  those  free  gifts  which  his  divine  power  has  bestowed 
and  which  come  to  us  through  knowing  him  who  hath  called  us,  etc. 

Translate  v.  3:  "According  as  his  divine  power  has  freely 
given  us  all  the  things  requisite  for  life  and  godliness  through 
the  knowledge  of  him  who  hath  called  us  to  his  own  glory  and 
virtue — "his  oivn"  being  in  the  better  sustained  text.  The  beau- 
tiful sentiment  is  that  God  has  called  us  to  become  like  himself — 
to  the  attainment  of  his  own  glorious  character  and  his  own  in- 
trinsic virtue.     "  Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy." Then  v.  4  repeats 

and  expands  the  same  sentiment,  beginning — "By  whom"  [better 
than  "  \vhereby "]  the  precious  and  very  great  promises  have 
been  freely  given  us  (the  same  verb  for  given  freely  as  above) — 
that  by  means  of  these  promises,  ye  might  become  partakers  of 


428  II.  PETER. — CHAP.    I. 

the  divine  nature,  having  fied  and  so  escaped  from  the  corrup- 
tion in  the  world  through  lust.  Thus  this  somewhat  extended 
sentence  reiterates  and  enforces  these  points: — That  God's  su- 
preme aim  is  to  make  his  children  holy  as  himself;  for  this  pur- 
pose he  has  given  us  most  freely  all  things  requisite  unto  such 
life  and  godliness,  and  especially  those  precious  and  very  great 
promises,  all  depending  upon  and  requiring  more  and  better 
knowledge  of  both  God  the  Father  and  Jesus  Christ  his  Son. 

5.  And  besides  this,  giving  all  diligence,  add  to  your 
faith  virtue;  and  to  virtue,  knowledge; 

6.  And  to  knowledge,  temperance;  and  to  temperance, 
patience ;  and  to  patience,  godliness ; 

7.  And  to  godliness,  brotherly  kindness;  and  to  brotherly 
kindness,  charity. 

Our  English,  "  Besides  this,"  is  misleading,  the  sense  being — 

For  this  purpose ;  for  the  sake  of  reaching  this  result. Using 

the  utmost  diligence,  add  to  one  Christian  grace  another  and  yet 
another.  Give  special  attention  to  the  culture,  first  of  this;  next 
of  another,  and  so  on  throughout  this  precious  catalogue.  The 
verb  for  "add"  suggests  a  continued  additional  supply,  as  where 
fresh  demands  call  for  fresh  outlays ;  the  sense  being,  thereforo : 
Aim  at  perpetual  progress  in  the  Christian  life  by  giving  special 
attention  and  effort  to  these  Christian  developments  one  after 
another,  that  each  in  turn  may  have  growth,  expansion,  aug- 
mented strength. So  "Add  to  your  fiith,  virtue  ' — manly  en- 
ergy, vital  working  force.  Let  your  faith  inspire  manly  heroism, 
bringing   forth  such  fruits  as  the  writer  to  the  Hebrews  shows 

that  faith  wrought  in  the  glorious  saints  of  old. We  do  well 

to  remember  that  it  was  Peter  who  wrote  this — Peter,  who  never 
can  forget  how  sadly  himself  came  short  of  this  manly  heroism 
(virtue)  on  his  first  really  great  trial,  when  he  saw  his  IMaster  in 
the  death-grasp  of  the  savage  Sanhedrim.  Oh,  if  he  had  only 
"  added  to  his  faith  virtue  " — more  of  the  old  Roman  heroism,  the 
stanchness  of  brave  endurance  and  fearless  steadfastness !  It 
need  not  surprise  us  that  after  faith,  he  puts  this  first  on  his  list 

of  the  needful  graces. Then  add  to  such  virtue,  knowledge  of 

God,  of  Christ,  of  all  the  great  things  of  the  gospel.  We  have 
seen  (v.  2,  3)  how  vital  he  regards  knowledge  to  be  as  the  means 
and  agency  through  which  comes  all  Christian  growth. "  Tem- 
perance "  must  be  taken  in  the  broadly  comprehensive  sense  of 
self-control,  the  self-command  of  every  appetite  and  passion,  in- 
eluding  of  course  the  passion  for  stimulants,  but  not  omitting  any 

otlier  harmful  indulgence. "  Patience,"  also  in  tiie  broad  sense 

of  meek  endurance  of  whatever  sufferings  or  ills  may  fall  to  our 

lot,    for  all    human    life   is    full  of    tliem. "(iodliness"    has 

special    reference   to    godly  fcMir,  a   reverential  attitude,  a  holy 

fear  of  God   and    conscientious    dread    of   dis))leasing   him. 

"  Hrotlierly  kindness" — literally  love  of  the  brethren;  and  to  this 
aJj — love  to  all  mankind — love  that  knows  no  limitations  of  per- 


II.    PETEE. — CHAP.    I.  429 

son. What  a  group  this  of  qualities  of  character,  noble  and 

beautiful,  each  to  come  under  every  man's  watchful  eye  and  self- 
shaping  hand,  that  he  may  round  out  his  whole  Christian  charac- 
ter into  beauty,  symmetry,  strength  and  glory. 

8.  For  if  these  things  be  in  you,  and  abound,  they  make 
you  that  ye  shall  neither  be  barren  nor  unfruitful  in  the 
knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

9.  But  he  that  lacketh  these  things  is  blind,  and  can  not 
see  afar  off,  and  hath  forgotten  that  he  was  purged  from  his 
old  sins. 

For  these  things  being  in  you  and  abounding,  will  cause  you 
to  be  neither  slothful  nor  unfruitful  in  respect  to  the  knowledge 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ — his  mind  still  dwelling  upon  progress 
in  this  best  of  all  knoAvledge. "Slothful"  is  much  more  accu- 
rate than  "  barren" — the  sense  "  barren  "  lying  in  the  next  word — 

"  unfruitful." For  he  who  has   not  these  Christian  graces  is 

blind;  short-sighted;  has  forgotten  his  being  cleansed  from  his 
old  sins.  He  has  lost  all  sense  of  obligation  for  pardon  and 
moral  cleansing;  has  forgotten  the  mercy  that  offered  him  salva- 
tion ;  forgotten  his  vows  of  consecration  to  a  new  life  of  gratitude, 
obedience,  love.  This  assumes  that  every  Christian  should  main- 
tain in  living  and  fresh  power  upon  his  soul  a  sense  of  the  great 
mercy  that  blotted  out  his  first  sins;  should  hold  this  sense  as  an 
ever-quickening,  inspiring  force,  impelling  him  on  in  his  Christian 
life. 

10.  Wherefore  the  rather,  brethren,  give  diligence  to 
make  your  calling  and  election  sure :  for  if  ye  do  these 
things,  ye  shall  never  fall : 

11.  For  so  an  entrance  shall  be  ministered  unto  you 
abundantly  into  the  everlasting  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and 
Savior  Jesus  Christ. 

Give  diligence  to  make  your  calling  and  election  sure — never 
assuming  that  this  is  a  thing  to  take  care  of  itself — that  the  sal- 
vation of  those  who  suppose  themselves  to  be  elected  is  of  course 
sure  and  requires  no  further  care  or  labor  on  their  part.  No,  in- 
deed; but  rather  "give  all  diligence" — great  and  unceasing,  to 
make  your  final  salvation  sure. 

For  "  doing  these  things  " — is  the  precise  sense  ;  while  doing 
these  things — so  long  as  ye  habitually  do  these  things,  ye  shall 

by  no  means  ever  fall. "  For  so,  an  inheritance  shall  be  mhi- 

istered  to  you  abundantly" — this  verb  "ministered"  being  the 
same  which  is  used  above  (v.  5)  for  "  add"  to  your  fiiith,  etc.  It 
seems  to  be  an  intended  play  upon  the  word.  If  ye  perpetually 
snpplij  fresh  strength  and  new  developments  to  all  your  Chris- 
tian graces,  God  will  supply  for  you  most  richly  an  abundant, 
easy  entrance  into  his  heavenly  kingdom. 

12.  Wherefore  I  will  not  be  negligent  to  put  you  always 


430  II.  PETEE. — CHAP.  I. 

in  remembrance  of  these  things,  though  ye  know  them,  and 
be  established  in  the  present  truth. 

13.  Yea,  I  think  it  meet,  as  long  as  I  am  in  this  taberna- 
cle, to  stir  you  up  by  putting  you  in  remembrance; 

14.  Knowing  that  shortly  I  must  put  off  this  my  taber- 
nacle, even  as  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  hath  showed  me. 

By  a  slight  change  of  text  according  to  the  better  authorities, 
the  first  verb  has  the  sense — I  must  continually  remind  you;  or 
I  am  about  to  remind  you  of  these  things,  although  aware  that  ye 
know  them.  But  without  assuming  to  teach  you  any  thing  un- 
known before,  I  may  at  least  remind  you — brin«;ing  back  these 
precious  things  to  your  earnest  thought.  I  write  as  one  who 
knows  well  that  his  death  is  near ;  or  as  the  sense  may  be — that 
my  decease  will  be  sudden,  instantaneous,  when  it  shall  come. 
His  Lord  had  long  since  signified  his  death  by  violence  (John  21  : 
18,  19). 

15.  Moreover  I  will  endeavor  that  ye  may  be  able  after 
my  decease  to  have  these  things  always  in  remembrance. 

He  would  leave  them  some  permanent  record  that  might  long 
outlast  his  mortal  life — a  favor  not  to  them  only,  but  to  the  church 
of  God  from  that  hour  onward  to  the  end  of  time. 

16.  For  we  have  not  followed  cunningly  devised  fables, 
when  we  made  known  unto  you  the  power  and  coming  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  were  eye-witnesses  of  his  maj- 
esty. 

17.  For  he  received  from  God  the  Father  honor  and 
glory,  when  there  came  such  a  voice  to  him  from  the  excel- 
lent glory,  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased. 

18.  And  this  voice  which  came  from  heaven  we  heard, 
when  we  were  with  him  in  the  holy  mount. 

Peter  would  inform  his  readers  how  himself  and  his  fellow- 
disciples,  James  and  .John,  came  to  know  respecting  the  power 
and  coming  of  the  Lord,  and  were  therefore  able  to  make  this 
known  to  them  ["  to  you  "].  We  make  this  known  to  you — not 
having  followed  myths  of  sophistry — artfully  devised  stories — but 
having  become  personal  eye-witnesses  of  his  majesty.  We  saw 
tlie  very  things  we  state  to  you — the  glorious   recognition  of  the 

mighty  Son  of  God  from  the  very  heavens. These  Greek  par- 

tici{)les — "having  followed;"  "having  become  eye-witnesses;" 
do  not  drop  into  our  English  idiom  with  entire  facility,  yet  the 
strictly  literal  translation  can  not  be  misunderstood.  We  made 
those  things  known  to  you,  having  not  done  that,  but  having  done 
this.  We  did  not  get  our  knowledge  in  that  way,  but  did  get  it 
in  this — i.  e.,  ])y  means  of  our  own  eyes  and  ears.  Jt  was  from 
God,  the  very  Father,  that  he  received  the  honor  and  the  glory  of 


II.  PETER. — CHAP.  I.  431 

bein^  recognized  as  his  beloved  Son.  **  Such  a  voice  " — more 
strictly,  an  utterance,  audible  words,  distinct  to  our  ears,  consti- 
tuting an  announcement,  was  borne  down  to  him  "  from  the  excel- 
lent glory" — which  expression  seems  to  be  taken  from  the  Shechi- 

nah  of  the  Most  Holy  place  in  the  temple. The  words  heard 

were — "  This  is  my  beloved  Son" — as  we  read  in  the  story  of  the 

transfiguration  (Matt.  17 :  5). This  utterance  borne   down   to 

him  from  heaven,  we  heard,  being  with  him  in  the  holy  mount. 
We  heard  it  coming  down — being  borne  down,  and  could  not  be 
mistaken  as  to  the  source  whence  it  came.  The  English  transla- 
tion— "  The  voice  which  came  " — fails  to  render  the  Greek  closely, 
omitting  one  of  the  vital  points  of  the  case,  viz.,  that  they  heard 
it  coming  and  therefore  knew  it  came  from  heaven. 

19.  We  have  also  a  more  sure  word  of  prophecy ;  where- 
unto  ye  do  well  that  ye  take  heed,  as  unto  a  light  that  shin- 
eth  in  a  dark  place,  until  the  day  dawn,  and  the  day-star 
arise  in  your  hearts : 

20.  Knowing  this  first,  that  no  prophecy  of  the  Scripture 
is  of  any  private  interpretation. 

21.  For  the  prophecy  came  not  in  old  time  by  the  will  of 
man  ;  but  holy  men  of  God  spake  as  they  were  'moved  by  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

The  first  clause  is  literally :  "  We  have  the  prophetic  word 
more  sure" — leaving  us  to  determine  whether  the  greater  cer- 
tainty compares  prophecy  with  such  an  audible  voice,  or  with  it- 
self as  it  was  before  this  additional  confirmation.  He  might 
mean:  The  word  of  prophecy  more  sure  than  such  an  audible 
announcement  from  heaven;  or  the  word  of  prophecy  made  more 
sure  by  the  events  of  Christ's  earthly  life. 

The  former  construction  might  seem  to  be  supported  by  the 
special  regard  which  he  forthwith  proceeds  to  claim  for  prophecy. 
But  the  latter  is  shown  to  be  the  true  construction  by  the  location 
of  the  adjective  (ISsjSatots  pov — "  more  sure  ")  before  the  article,  and 
not  between  the  article  and  its  noun,  while  the  adjective  "pro- 
phetic" stands  between  them.  The  Avord  "more  sure,"  standing 
before  the  article,  and  not  between  the  article  and  its  noun,  re- 
quires the  sense — We  have  the  prophetic  word  made  more  sure ; 
i.  5.,  by  the  confirmation  it  has  received  in  the  way  of  fulfillment 
and  otherwise.* 

Ye  do  well  to  take  heed  to  that  ancient  prophecy,  considered 
in  whole,  as  to  a  light  shining  in  what  would  otherwise  have  been 
a  place   totally    dark ;  and    so    shining    until    day-dawn    should 

*  The  adjective  so  located  becomes  what  Hadley  (see  488)  calls  a 
"  predicate  adjective  "  as  distinguished  from  an  attributive — the 
attributive  being  one  whose  connection  with  its  noun  is  taken  for 
granted  in  the  sentence  (e.  g.,  "  The  good  man  practices  righteous- 
ness "  ) ;  the  "  predicate  adjective  "  one  which  is  brought  by  the  sen- 
tence into  connection  with  the  substantive — which  is  the  case  here. 


432  II.  PETER. — CHAP.    II. 

brighten  and  the  day-star  rise  upon  your  hearts — by  this  graphic 
figure  setting  forth  the  actual  uses  of  prophecy  in  the  ages  before 
Christ  came. 

Knowing  this  (v.  20)  as  of  the  first  importance,  that  no  Script- 
ure prophecy  was  ever  of  any  man's  private  setting  forth.  The 
word  "  interpretation  "  misleads  the  mind  because  it  suggests  the 
interpreting  of  given  words  rather  than  the  bringing  forth  of  the 
words  themselves.  Peter  meant  to  say,  not  that  no  prophet  pri- 
vately interpreted  his  own  words,  but  that  no  prophet  brought 
forth  his  words  from  his  own  mind.  He  did  not  originate  them ; 
did  not  bring  them  forth,  unloose  them  from  his  own  thought- 
stores. This  construction  of  his    meaning  is  made    perfectly 

plain  by  his  argument.  "  For''  prophecy  was  never  brought 
down  to  us  by  (or  from)  the  will  of  man ;  nor  did  it  come  out  of 
his  thought,  purpose,  impulse ;  but  men  of  God,  chosen  and  used 
of  God  for  this  purpose,  spake,  being  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Literally,  "They  spake,  being  borne  onward,  their  minds  carried, 
moved  where  and  as  he  would,  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  was  due 
to  his  impulses  or  suggestions — the  bearing  along  of  their  minds 
under  his  sway,  that  they  uttered  their  prophecies,  and  not  to  any 
impulse  of  their  own  personal  will.  The  word  for  "will"  (HsT^rjixa) 
purposely  denies  their  voluntary  agency  in  determining  what  to 
predict.  The  human  element  is  excluded  and  its  responsibility 
for  the  things  said  is  denied;  while  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  af- 
firmed that  they  spake,  being  borne  along,  as  passive  agents,  by  the 
Holy  Ghost. Such  is  Peter's  conception  of  Scripture  prophecy. 


D»^o<^ — 


CHAPTER    II. 

The  fiilse  prophets  of  ancient  time  suggest  to  Peter  the  fiilse 
teachers  among  the  Christian  communities  addressed.  Their 
character  and  doom  are  the  subject  of  the  whole  chapter  (v.  1). 
They  have  a  large  following  and  a  pernicious  influence  (v.  2) ; 
their  spirit  and  their  speedy  judgment  (v.  3);  the  argument  from 
the  case  of  fallen  angels ;  the  antediluvian  world  and  Sodom  on 
the  one  hand,  and  righteous  Noah  and  Lot  on  the  other,  brought 
to  bear  (v.  4-9)  ;  their  character  resumed  for  further  description 
(v.  10-19) ;  the  last  end  of  apostates  fearful  (v.  20-22). 

^1.  But  there  were  false  prophets  also  among  the  people, 
even  as  there  shall  be  false  teachers  among  you,  -who  privily 
shall  bring  in  damnable  heresies,  even  denying  the  Lord  that 
bought  them,  and  bring  upon  themselves  swift  destruction. 

The  transition  of  thought  is  natural  from  the  true  prophets  to 
the  false — such  as  appear  prominent  in  the  book  of  Jeremiah,  in 
the  history  of  Ahal),  and  clsowhcre;  and  from  these  to  the  false 
teachers  of  kindred  spirit  who  rose  up  to  imperil  unwary  souls  in 


II.  PETER. — CHAP.  II.  433 

the  communities  addressed  in  this  epistle.  By  cunning  arts  play- 
ing skillfully  upon  human  passions  and  prejudices,  they  ensnare 
men  into  heresies  fiital  to  their  souls. — The  word  "privily"  sug- 
gests the  cunning,  insinuating  methods  they  used.  The  specifica- 
tion of  their  false  doctrine  is  that  of  "  denying  the  Lord  that 
bought  them" — i.  e.,  denying  Christ  as  one  who  had  bought  them 
with  his  blood.  This  means,  rejecting  the  atonement;  disowning 
Christ  as  Redeemer  and  atoning  Sacrifice. — So  doing,  they  bring 
upon  themselves  swift  destruction.  For  such  deniers  of  Christ, 
no  salvation  can  be  possible,  nor  can  there  be  any  reason  why 
God  should  spare  them  through  a  long  life  on  earth. Incident- 
ally the  case  shows  that  the  atonement  by  Christ  was  made  ample 
enough  to  save  some  at  least  who  will  be  lost.  They  denied  the 
Lord  who  bought  them ;  repelled  a  salvation  provided  adequately 
for  themselves;  perished  when  they  might  just  as  well  have  been 
saved  if  only  they  would.  On  the  side  of  provision  through 
Christ's  atoning  blood,  nothing  more  needed  to  be  done.  They 
despise  and  repel  a  salvation  really  purchased  and  paid  for  in 
their  behalf. 

2.  And  many  shall  follow  their  pernicious  ways ;  by  rea- 
son of  whom  the  way  of  truth  shall  be  evil  spoken  of. 

3.  And  through  covetousness  shall  they  with  feigned  words 
make  merchandise  of  you :  whose  judgment  now  of  a  long 
time  lingereth  not,  and  their  damnation  slumbereth  not. 

For  "pernicious,"  the  better  text  has  licentious  [aae^.ysiaia'] — a 
word  which  looks  rather  to  the  moral  causes  of  their  errors  than 
to  their  ruinous  results.  Through  their  influence  the  way  of 
truth  is  "blasphemed"  (Greek) — "the  way  of  truth,"  meaning 
either  the  system  of  gospel  truth  itself,  or  the  course  of  life  to 
which  the  truth  leads;  probably  the  former  primarily — the  latter 

by  natural  result. Verse  3  looks  toward  the  motives  of  these 

false  teachers,  among  which  the  love  of  money  seems  to  be  plainly 
indicated  in  both  "covetousness"  and  "merchandise."  Their 
ambition  to  make  proselytes  had  an  eye  to  money.  Once  made, 
they  managed  to  turn  them  in  some  way  to  the  money  account. 
This  virtually  denies  to  them  all  worthy  motive ;  denies  all  pur- 
pose to  do  good,  to  save  men's  souls,  or  to  honor  God.  All  their 
aims  were  low,  base,  supremely  selfish,  Peter  manifestly  believes 
that  bad  doctrine  has  its  root  in  a  bad  heart,  and  seems  not  afraid 
to  say  so. — He  describes  the  arts  of  these  false  teachers — "with 
feigned  words" — words  framed,  shaped,  fashioned  to  their  foul 
purposes.  God's  judgments  against  such  men  can  never  move 
slowly.  Now  for  a  long  time  not  inert,  says  Peter,  their  destruc- 
tion sleepeth  not.  O  how  swiftly  shall  it  come,  and  bow  terrible 
its  fall !        ^  ^        ^ 

That  their  destruction  is  most  sure,  Peter  proceeds  to  infer 
from  the  doom  of  other  great  sinners — as  we  shall  see. 

4.  For  if  God  spared  not  the  angels  that  sinned,  but  cast 


434  n.  PETER. — CHAP.  II. 

them  down  to  hell,  and  delivered  tJwm  into  chains  of  dark- 
ness, to  be  reserved  uuto  judgment; 

5.  And  spared  not  the  old  world,  but  saved  Noah  the 
eighth  person,  a  preacher  of  righteousness,  bringing  in  the 
flood  upon  the  world  of  the  ungodly ; 

6.  And  turning  the  cities  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  into 
ashes  condemned  them  with  an  overthrow,  making  them^  an 
ensample  unto  those  that  after  should  live  ungodly; 

7.  And  delivered  just  Lot,  vexed  with  the  filthy  conver- 
sation of  the  wicked: 

8.  (For  that  righteous  man  dwelling  among  them,  in  see- 
ing and  hearing,  vexed  his  righteous  soul  from  day  to  day 
with  their  unlawful  deeds :) 

9.  The  Lord  knoweth  how  to  deliver  the  godly  out  of 
temptation,  and  to  reserve  the  unjust  unto  the  day  of  judg- 
ment to  be  punished: 

"For"  [yap]  connects  itself  logically  with  the  case  of  the  false 
teachers. 

"If" — inasmuch  as — "God  spared  not,"  etc.  Spared  not  the 
sinning  angels — literally  the  having-sinned  angels;  the  angels, 
they  having  sinned — where  the  aorist  participle  indicates  that  the 
sin  preceded  the  not  sparing  by  only  the  briefest  time.  All  sud- 
denly the  blow  fell  with  no  mercy  and  no  delay. — Hurling  them 
down  to  Tartarus  in  chains  of  darkness,  he  bound  them  over  to 
be  kept  for  judgment — i.  e.,  until  the  great  day  for  the  common 
judgment  of  all  the  rebels  in  God's  universal  kingdom;  all  fallen 
angels,  and  all  the  fallen  and  not  saved  of  our  race. 

Here  we  have  in  brief  form  but  most  explicit  terms  the  grand 
fact  as  to  God's  dealing  with  the  rebels  of  his  moral  universe. 
They  meet  a  common,  an  inevitable  doom.  Doubtless  for  the 
sake  of  a  deeper  and  more  pervading  impression,  this  great  judg- 
ment scene  will  concentrate  all  the  judgment  work  of  the  uni- 
verse into  one  momentous  day.  The  fallen  angels  are  held  im- 
prisoned, awaiting  the  consummation  of  God's  redemptive  work 
for  our  race.  This  done,  the  unsaved  and  incorrigible  of  men 
and  the  angels  that  sinned  with  no  redemption,  shall  appear  be- 
fore the  same  glorious  Son  of  man,  their  final  Judge ! 

Jude  (v.  6)  is  with  Peter  in  his  statements  on  this  point:  "The 
angels  that  kept  not  their  first  estate,  but  left  their  own  habita- 
tion, he  hath  reserved  in  everlasting  chains  under  darkness  unto 
the  judgment  of  the  great  day." — The  Scriptures  elsewhere  as- 
sume and  in  this  way  indorse  these  statements ;  especially  docs 
our  Lord  in  his  somewhat  minute  account  of  the  final  judgment 
scene  (Matt.  25:  31-46):  "Saying  to  those  on  his  left  hand:  De- 
part from  me,  ye  cursed,  into  everlasting  five,  prepared  for  the 
devil  and  his  angels."     See  also  Jlev.  12:  7-0,  and  20:  10. 

The  case  of  the  antediluvian  world  is  put  in  the  same  terms — 
"not  spared" — after  they  had  proved  themselves  utterly  incorri- 


II.  PETER. — CHAP.    II.  435 

gible  through  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  of  patient  waiting 

and  persistent  warning — all  in  vain.— "  Saved  Noah  " — the  word 

"saved"  suggesting  that  he  was  shut  up,  imprisoned  for  safe- 
keeping in  the  ark.  "Noah  the  eighth" — there  being  seven  be- 
sides, all  members  of  his  family.  He  "a  preacher"  (herald)  of 
righteousness,"  witnessing  to  that  godless  generation  of  the  claims 
of  righteousness  and  of  God's  eternal  justice,  sure  to  overwhelm 
the  guilty. 

Buried  the  cities,  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  in  ashes,  with  fire  from 
the  Lord  out  of  heaven  (Gen,  19  :  24) — making  them  an  example 
of  men  who  would,  were  sure  to  or  about  to,  live  impiously  as 
toward  God.  But  delivered  righteous  Lot,  pained  with  the  licen- 
tious life  of  those  wicked  men — wicked  in  the  sense  of  lawless, 

reckless  of  all  law,  all  purity. Verse  8  digresses  to  give  more 

in  detail  the  pain  of  heart  felt  by  Lot,  living  in  the  constant  pres- 
ence of  such  outrageous  wickedness. — "That  righteous  man, 
dwelling  among  them  day  after  day  with  sight  and  hearing," — 
compelled  to  see  and  compelled  to  hear — "  tormented  his  right- 
eous soul"  (so  the  Greek)  "with  their  lawless  deeds."  He  could 
not  escape  the  sense  of  torture  in  his  soul  under  the  presence  of 
such  awful  crime! — These  strong  statements  seem  designed  to 
justify  God  not  only  in  rescuing  righteous  Lot,  but  in  not  suffer- 
ing such  monsters  in  crime  to  pollute  the  earth  longer. 

Hence  the  apostle  draws  his  grand  inference  :  If  God  spared 
not  the  sinning  angels,  nor  the  God-defying  men  of  Noah's  time, 
nor  the  morally  rotten  men  of  Sodom ;  but  saved  Noah  and  Lot 
— righteous  men — protesting  against  the  wickedness  they  could 
not  stem  and  could  not  endure — then,  we  conclude,  the  Lord 
knoweth  how  to  deliver  the  godly  out  of  their  temptation,  and 
also  how  to  reserve  the  unjust  to  the  day  of  judgment  to  be  pun- 
ished. He  knoivs  how !  He  never  can  lack  resources ;  will 
never  be  short  of  the  requisite  powers  and  agencies.  His  plans 
are  long  since  laid ;  his  agencies  provided  and  in  waiting. 

10.  But  chiefly  them  that  walk  afler  the  flesh  in  the  lust 
of  uncleanness,  and  despise  government.  Presumptuous  are 
they,  self-willed,  they  are  not  afraid  to  speak  evil  of  dignities. 

11.  Whereas  angels,  which  are  greater  in  power  and 
might,  bring  not  railing  accusations  against  them  before  the 
Lord. 

12.  But  these,  as  natural  brute  beasts,  made  to  be  taken 
and  destroyed,  speak  evil  of  the  things  that  they  under- 
stand not ;  and  shall  utterly  perish  in  their  own  corruption ; 

13.  And  shall  receive  the  reward  of  unrighteousness,  as 
they  that  count  it  pleasure  to  riot  in  the  day-time.  Spots 
they  are  and  blemishes,  sporting  themselves  with  their  own 
deceivings  while  they  feast  with  you ; 

14.  Having  eyes  full  of  adultery,  and  that  can  not  cease 


436  II.  PETER. — CHAP.    II. 

from  sill ;  beguiling  unstable  souls :  a  heart  they  have  exer- 
cised with  covetous  j^ractices ;  cursed  children : 

_  This  graphic  description  of  the  false  teachers  under  considera- 
tion is  in  the  main  entirely  clear,  setting  forth  their  intense  and 
beastly  sensuality;  their  contempt  and  defiance  of  all  proper 
authority;  their  self-will;  their  intruding  themselves  into  the 
Christian  loye-fcasts,  perpetually  beguiling  the  unstable.  "A  heart 
exercised  with  covetous  practices"  suggests  a  special  discipline 

and  culture   (gymnastics  being  the  word)   in  covetousness. 

Several  of  these  phrases  are  essentially  common  to  Peter  and  to 
Jude,  rendering  it  quite  certain  that  they  l)oth  describe  the  same 
class  of  men,  and  very  probable  that  one  imitated  the  other,  yet 
leaving  the  question  open  which  was  the  original.  The  allusion 
(v.  11)  to  angels  as  beautiful  examples  of  moderation  in  speech 
is  much  more  definite  and  full  as  it  appears  in  Jude,  for  he  refers 
it  to  Michael  by  name  and  to  his  dispute  with  the  devil  over  the 
body  of  Moses  as  the  occasion.  These  circumstances  fixvor  the 
opinion  that  Jude,  in  this  point  at  least,  was  the  original. 

15.  Which  have  forsaken  the  right  way,  and  are  gone 
astray,  following  the  way  of  Balaam  the  son  of  Bosor,  who 
loved  the  wages  of  unrighteousness; 

16.  ^  But  was  rebuked  for  his  iniquity:  the  dumb  ass  speak- 
ing with  man's  voice  forbade  the  madness  of  the  prophet. 

Jude  also  compares  these  men  to  Balaam;  but  in  this  case  Peter 
gives  the  more  full  and  minute  account.  Both  agree  in  represent- 
ing covetousness  to  be  Balaam's  great  and  damning  sin;  but  Peter 
adds  a  reference  to  the  rebuke  which  the  dumb  ass  with  human 
voice  gave  to  the  prophet's  madness. 

^  17.  These  are  wells  without  water,  clouds  that  are  car- 
ried with  a  tempest;  to  whom  the  mist  of  darkness  is  re- 
served forever. 

18.  For  wdien  they  speak  great  swelling  words  of  vanity, 
they  allure  through  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  through  much  wan- 
tonness, those  that  were  clean  escaped  from  them  who  live 
in  error. 

19.  While  they  promise  them  liberty,  they  themselves 
are  the  servants  of  corruption :  for  of  wdiom  a  man  is  over- 
come, of  the  same  is  he  brought  in  bondage. 

"Wells  without  water" — tantalizing  but  bitterly  disappointing 
— would  be  a  very  expressive  figure  in  those  Oriental  lands  where 
water  so  often  fails,  and  its  failure  is  so  sorely  felt.  8o  of  clouds 
from  which  men  hope  for  rain,  but  sadly  see  them  wind-driven 
and  scattered  away. To  such  "the  mist  of  darkness" — dark- 
ness most  d(!nse,  as  when  the  air  is  heavy  laden  with  vapor — is 
reserved,  laid   up  in  store. The   older  manuscripts  omit  the 


II.  PETER. — CHAP.  II.  437 

word  forever,  though  it  appears  in  Judc  13.  The  continual  usage 
of  the  word  "reserved"  by  Peter  [r^^pfco]  makes  its  meaning 
entirely  certain  without  this  addition.  (See  1  Peter  1 :  4  and 
2  Peter  2:  4,  9  and  3:  7.) 

"  Great  swelling  words  of  vanity  "  well  represent  the  original 
Greek  and  also  the  character  of  the  vain  conceited  men  here 
under  description.  Assuming,  pretentious,  wordy,  skilled  in  play- 
ing upon  the  passions  of  the  ignorant  or  unsuspecting,  they  allure 
as  with  well  baited  hook  (Greek)  those  who  had  almost  (within 
a  little)  escaped  from  the  circle  and  the  spell  of  deluded  men. 
Promising  them  liberty,  but  being  themselves  the  slaves  of  cor- 
ruption ;  for  a  man  is  the  slave  of  him  by  whom  he  is  overcome 
and  brought  under.  The  man  who  is  in  bondage  to  his  lusts  is 
the  lowest  of  slaves,  for  his  master  is  the  meanest  of  all  masters. 
Small  ground  has  he  to  boast  of  liberty. 

20.  For  if  after  they  have  escaped  the  pollutions  of  the 
world  through  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  and  Savior  Jesus 
Christ,  they  are  again  entangled  therein,  and  overcome,  the 
latter  end  is  worse  with  them  than  the  beginning. 

21.  For  it  had  been  better  for  them  not  to  have  known 
the  way  of  righteousness,  than,  after  they  have  known  it^ 
to  turn  from  the  holy  commandment  delivered  unto  them. 

22.  But  it  is  happened  unto  them  according  to  the  true 
proverb,  The  dog  is  turned  to  his  own  vomit  again ;  and  the 
sow  that  was  washed  to  her  wallowing  in  the  mire. 

The  case  supposed  here  is  that  of  one  externally  reformed, 
escaped  from  the  pollutions  of  the  world  through  his  knowledge 
of  Christ,  yet  becoming  again  entangled — involved  in  them — 
through  the  power  of  his  old  unslain  lusts.  His  last  state  is 
worse  than  his  first.  So  Christ  taught  (Matt.  12:  43-45)  under 
the  case  of  the  unclean  spirit,  once  gone  out  from  a  man,  yet, 
having  no  rest  elsewhere,  returns  to  find  his  old  home  in  the  most 
inviting  order,  and  thereupon  takes  a  troop  of  other  more  wicked 
spirits  to  come  in  and  dwell  there  and  make  that  man's  last  state 
worse  than  his  first.  Better  for  a  man  never  to  have  known  the 
way  of  righteousness  than  to  have  known  it  so  well  and  yet 
apostatize  from  it.  Knowledge  abused  brings  on  man  the  deepest 
possible  curse,  because  it  involves  the  greatest  possible  guilt. 
Peter  puts  the  case  pungently  by  his  citation  of  two  kindred 
proverbs : — the  dog  returning  to  his  own  vomit ;  the  sow,  once 
washed,  to  wallowing  again  in  the  mire.  That,  after  the  gospel 
emetic  should  in  a  measure  have  cleansed  a  man's  heart  (moral 
stomach)  of  its  foul  abominations  of  impurity  and  lust,  he  should 
go  back  like  a  dog  to  his  own  vomit,  is  not  only  disgusting  but 
fearfully  debasing  and  guilty.  So  also  the  sow  may  be  washed 
and  for  the  time  appear  decent,  but  the  swine-nature  remaining 
will  plunge  her  into  the  mire  again.  Her  case  requires  a  deepei- 
change  than  a  bath  can  give. 


438  II.    PETEK. — CHAP.   III. 


CHAPTER    III. 


The  writer  refers  again  to  his  main  purpose  in  these  epistles 
(the  first  and  the  second) — to  remind  them  of  the  words  from 
God  through  the  prophets  and  also  the  apostles  (v.  1,  2);  calling 
their  attention  specially  to  the  scoffers  whose  coming  in  these 
last  days  had  been  fore-indicated  (v.  3);  to  what  they  said  (v.  4); 
to  what  he  replies  by  reference  to  the  creation,  the  flood,  and  the 
future  destruction  of  the  earth  by  fire  (v.  5-7) ;  that  lapse  of 
time  affects  not  the  certainty  of  God's  threatenings  (v.  8) ;  that 
delay  of  judgment  is  only  long-suffering,  to  make  repentance  pos- 
sible (v.  9) ;  what  the  day  of  the  Lord  will  bring  upon  this  world 
(v.  10);  and  how  this  should  move  men  to  live  (v,  11,  12).  The 
new  heavens  and  earth  in  promise  (v.  13)  and  how  under  this 
hope  and  promise  Christians  should  live  (v,  14) ;  that  Paul  holds 
the  same  views  (v.  15,  16) — closing  with  final  admonitions  against 
the  errors  of  the  wicked  and  exhortations  to  growing  grace  and 
knowledge  (v.  17,  18). 

1.  This  second  epistle,  beloved,  I  now  write  unto  you ; 
in  both  which  I  stir  up  your  pure  minds  by  way  of  remem- 
brance : 

2.  That  ye  may  be  mindful  of  the  words  which  were 
spoken  before  by  the  holy  prophets,  and  of  the  command- 
ment of  us  the  apostles  of  the  Lord  and  Savior : 

The  reader  will  notice  this  very  distinct  recognition  of  the 
present  as  his  second  epistle,  having  the  same  general  purpose  as 
the  first — which  purpose  he  speaks  of  very  modestly — not  as  one 
assuming  to  teach  things  unknown  before  but  only  suggesting  and 
recalling  to  their  special  attention  what  they  had  known  or  might 
have  learned  from  the  old  prophets  and  their  own  apostles.  The 
improved  text  reads — not  "of  us,"  (the  apostles),  but  "  of  your 
apostles;"  i.  e.,  apostles  of  your  own  age,  in  contrast  with  the 

prophets  of  ages  long  past. In   saying — "your  pnre  minds," 

ho  indicates  his  confidence  in  their  Christian  simplicity  and  in- 
tegrity. 

3.  Knowing  this  first,  that  there  shall  come  in  the  last 
days  scoffers,  walking  after  their  own  lusts, 

4.  And  saying,  Where  is  the  promise  of  his  coming?  for 
since  the  fathers  fell  asleep,  all  things  continue  as  they  were 
from  the  beginning  of  the  creation. 

It  was  of  the  first  importance  that  they  recall  the  predictions 
of  the  coming  of  scoffers  in  the  last  dnys — the  days  then  passing. 
The  older  authorities  make  the  phrase  for  "scoffers"  specially 
intensive — shameless  scoffers — (Greek  iv  s/xrraiy/xovt]  fjurraixT'at) — 
defiant  and  reckless. That  they  "  walk  after  their  own  lusts" 


II.    PETER. — CHAP.  III.  439 

traces  their  skepticism  to  a  bad  heart.  Their  scoffing  came  of  a 
self-indulgent  spirit  which  would  brook  no  restaint,  and  therefore 
cast  off  all  fear  of  God.  Peter  never  shrinks  from  charging  home 
all  skepticism  to  the  account  of  godless  sensuality — the  influence 
of  unrestrained  lust. 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  characters  portrayed  in  the  second 
chapter  differ  quite  materially  from  those  described  in  this  third. 
Those  were  not  scoffers,  but  were  false  teachers,  teaching  some- 
thing which  they  claimed  to  be  religious  truth.  They  obtruded 
themselves  into  the  churches  and  into  their  love-feasts.  But  these 
men  are  shameless  scoffers,  downright  infidels  and  contem- 
ners of  all  things  sacred.  They  not  only  profess  no  faith  in  God's 
word,  but  they  boldly  deny  its  truth  and  assert  it  to  be  fiction. 

It  should  be  noticed  that  the  term  "promise" — ("promise  of 

his  coming")  contemplates  God's  word  on  the  side  toward  his 
people,  not  toward  his  enemies.  To  the  latter  it  would  be  threat- 
ening, rather  than  promise.  Hence  this  was  their  turn  of 
thought :  What  do  you.  Christians,  think  now  about  the  promise 
of  his  coming,  of  which  you  have  said  so  much  and  so  foolishly? 
Is  it  not  about  time  you  should  give  up  all  such  idle  dreams  and 

hopes  ? Since  the  fathers  who  began  this  talk  long  ago  went 

to  their  graves,  things  move  just  as  they  have  ever  since  the  world 
was  made.     No  signs  appear  in  earth  or  sky  of  the  coming  ye 

have   expected  so   long! This  reference   to  "the  fathers"   is 

probably  to  the  early  Christian  witnesses — the  first  apostles. 

Some  one  has  said  that  their  allusion  to  the  creation  admits,  what 
some  modern  skeptics  deny,  viz.,  that  the  world  had  a  Creator  and 
therefore  a  beginning.  Peter  avails  himself  of  this  admission  to 
infer  from  it  that  a  world  which  had  a  begininng  may  have  an 
end;  a  world  which  had  a  Creator  may  find  in  him  One  able 
also  to  destroy ! 

5.  For  this  they  willingly  are  ignorant  of,  that  by  the 
word  of  God  the  heavens  were  of  old,  and  the  earth  standing 
out  of  the  water  and  in  the  water : 

6.  Whereby  the  world  that  then  was,  being  overflowed 
with  water,  perished: 

7.  But  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  which  are  now,  by  the 
same  word  are  kept  in  store,  reserved  unto  fire  against  the 
day  of  judgment  and  perdition  of  ungodly  men. 

For  this  they  are  glad  to  forget; — literally,  it  escapes  their  no- 
tice with  their  glad  consent.  To  be  blind  to  this  fact  which  I 
am  now  to  state  is  of  all  things  to  their  mind  and  will.  They 
love  to  rule  it  out  of  their  thought. 

"That  by  the  word  of  God  the  heavens  were  of  old."  In  this 
clause  the  word  "were"  should  be  made  slightly  emphatic,  so  as 
to  express  the  real  sentiment,  were  created.  We  find  the  clue  to 
the  meaning  in  the  Hebrew  manner  of  speaking  of  the  creation 
as  being  effected    by  the  word   of  the   Almighty:    "God  said, 


440  II.   PETER. — CHAP.  III. 

Let  there  be  light;  and  light  ?r(7s"  (Gen.  1 :  3),  "By  the  word 
of  the  Lord  were  the  heavens  made:  for  He  spake  and  it  ivas ;  he 
commanded,  and  it  stood  fast"  (Ps.  33:  6,  9).  This  ancient  He- 
brew usage  makes  it  certain  that  the  word  "were"  in  this  pas- 
sage signifies — were   created  :   and  ascribes  this   creation  to  the 

word    of  God — the  divine  fiat. "And  the    earth,  standing  out 

of  the  water  and  in  the  water.'"  The  sense  of  this  passage — so 
obscure  to  many — has  its  clew  in  the  ancient  Heln-ew  conception 
of  the  process  of  making  (we  might  say)  the  dry  land.  jNloses 
(Gen  1 :  9)  puts  it — not,  let  the  dry  land  be  made,  but  "  let  the 
dry  land  appear."  They  had  no  conception  of  a  solid  globe  (as 
we  have),  })ut  thought  of  an  immense  body  of  water,  neither  the 
bounds  nor  the  depth  of  which  came  into  the  account  at  all,  but 
up  from  the  bosom  of  which  the  dry  land  rises,  appears,  and  then 
stands  together  (so  the  Greek  word  Gwia-ttoaa,  signifies)  ;  assumes 
and  maintains  its  solidity.  It  emerges  out  of  the  water  and 
ihrouffh  the  water  (6ta) — which  should  never  have  been  translated 
''in  the  water"  but  through.  Thus  conceived  and  understood, 
the  passage  becomes  entirely  lucid.  By  the  word  of  the  Lord 
the  earth — dry  land — emerged  from  the  vast  ocean  waters,  and 
stood  firm.     But  how  easily  God  could  let  it  sink  again  ! 

So  V.  6 :  by  which  creative  fiat — the  same  divine  power  which 
spake  the  heavens  into  being  and  lifted  the  dry  land  to  consti- 
tute the  solid  earth; — by  this  divine  word,  the  world  as  it  tlien 
was  [the  then  world,  Greek]  overwhelmed  with  water,  perished — 
in  the  great  flood  of  Noah's  time.  But  the  present  heavens  and 
earth  are  by  the  same  divine  word  treasured  up — held  in  God's 
keeping — reserved  for  fire  unto  the  day  for  the  judgment  and  per- 
dition of  the  ungodly  men.  The  fact  of  the  great  flood,  and  in- 
deed the  very  constitution  and  manner  of  production,  of  the  dry 
land  (as  they  thought  of  it)  would  strongly  indicate  the  final  de- 
struction of  this  world  by  water  rather  than  by  fire.  But  God's 
thought  and  revealed  plan  declare  its  final  doom  to  be  destruction, 
not  by  water  but  by  fire.  As  to  resources,  it  is  with  him  all  the 
same — infinite  for  either. 

Here  it  can  not  be  out  of  place  to  suggest  the  well  known  as- 
tronomical fact  that  within  a  comparatively  recent  date,  some 
heavenly  bodies  of  immense  size — apparent  stars,  really  suns — 
the  center  like  our  sun,  of  their  own  solar  system,  have  perished 

by  conflagration. T    quote  from  Biirritt's  "  Geography  of  the 

Heavens''  p.  40  :  "  On  Noveml)er  8,  1572,  Tycho  Brahe  saw  a  star 
in  the  constelhition  of  Cassiopeia,  whicii  became,  all  at  once,  so 
]»rilliant  that  it  sui-passed  tlie  splendor  of  the  brightest  planets  and 
might  be  seen  even  at  noon-day!  Gradually  this  great  brilliancy 
diminished,  until  March  15,  1574,  when,  without  moving  frtan  its 
place,  it  became  utterly  extinct.  Its  color  during  this  time,  ex- 
iiibitod  all  the  phenomena  of  a  prodigious  flame  : — first  it  was  of 
a  dazzling  white;;  then  of  a  reddish  yellow;  and  lastly,  of  an  ashy 
palen(!ss,  in  Avhich  its  light  expired.  It  was  visil)le  for  sixteen 
nnniths." La  Place,  remarking  on  cases  of  this  sort,  says — "It 


II.  PETER. — CHAP.  III.  441 

is  probaLle  that  great  conflagrations,  produced  by  extraordinary 

causes,  take  place  on  their  surface." Dr.    Good  states   ■'  that 

within  the  last  century,  not  less  than  thirteen  stars  in  different 
constellations,  seem  to  have  totally  perished  and  ten  new  ones  to 
have  been  created."  Facts  of  more  recent  observation  indicate 
not  their  total  destruction  but  rather  an  immense  conflagration 
Avhich  greatly  reduced  their  brilliancy  and  apparent  magnitude, 
but  left  them  still  within  telescopic  range  of  vision.  Prof.  R.  A. 
Proctor,  in  a  recent  work — {''Myths  and  Marvels  of  Astronomy  "), 
has  a  chapter  on  "  Suns  in  Flames ;  "  in  which  he  gives  some- 
what full  details  of  such  cases; — besides  that  of  1572;  another  in 
August,  1596;  another  September,  1604;  one  in  1670;  and  in  the 

present  century,  in  1848,  1866. The  result  of  such  observed 

fticts  seems  plainly  to  show  that  sun-conflagrations  are  entirely 
possible ;  are  fully  within  the  laws  of  nature  under  which  the 
Creator  builds,  sustains,  or  destroys  the  material  worlds  of  his 
universal  empire ;  and  that,  therefore,  the  words  of  Peter  have 
the  known  analogies  of  the  visible  heavens  to  sustain  them. 

Notice,  also,  the  bearing  of  these  facts  upon  those  defiant  scof- 
fers. Peter  would  say ; — ^Ye  are  glad  to  forget  that  God's  crea- 
tive word  brought  into  being  the  heavens,  and  can  as  easily  blot 
them  out ;  lifted  the  solid  earth  out  of  its  surrounding  and  sus- 
taining waters,  and  could  with  infinite  ease  let  it  sink  again; 
did  bury  the  old  world  with  a  flood,  and  might  with  no  conscious 
effort  drown  the  earth  once  more.  They  forget  that  their  footing 
on  this  solid  earth  has  no  bottom  at  all  as  against  the  fiat  of  the 
Almighty  !  They  do  not  consider  that  the  God  they  scoff  at  holds 
them  in  his  hollow  hand ;  upholds  all  the  little  footing  they  have 
to  stand  on;  can  engulf  this  vast  globe  in  fire  at  his  will  any  day! 
Do  they  dare  to  think  how  delicate  and  gossamer-like  the  thread 
by  which  they  hang  suspended  over  the  fires  of  perdition? 

8.  But,  beloved,  be  not  ignorant  of  this  one  thing,  that 
one  day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a  thousand  years,  and  a  thou- 
sand years  as  one  day. 

9.  The  Lord  is  not  slack  concerning  his  promise,  as  some 
men  count  slackness;  but  is  long  suffering  to  us-ward,  not 
willing  that  any  should  perish,  but  that  all  should  come  to 
repentance. 

"Beloved,  be  not  ignorant  of  this  one  thing'' — using  the  same 
word  here  as  before  (v.  5)  of  the  willing  ignorance  of  the  scoffers. 
Do  not  follow  their  example  of  willing  ignorance,  but  hold  this 

truth  in  its  freshness  upon  your  souls. As  to  the  sense  of  "  this 

one  thing" — "  one  day  with  the  Lord  as  a  thousand  years  and  a 
thousand  years  as  one  day,"  it  is  pertinent  first  to  notice  that  it 
manifestly  imitates  :Moses  (in  Ps.  90:  4):   "A  thousand  years  in 


442  II.  PETER. — CHAP.  III. 

it  is  in  our  sight  and  in  relation  to  our  being  and  our  work. 
Time  brings  changes  to  us,  but  no  change  to  hiin.  Time  wastes 
away  our  strength  and  sends  us  back  to  dust;  but  through  all 
time  the  everlasting  God  retains  his  vigor  unabated;  his  powers 

unwasted, Such  was  the  thought  of  Moses  in  that  great  funeral 

dirge — Ps.  90.  There  is  no  reasonable  doubt  that  Peter  took 
from  that  Psalm  the  thought  which  he  puts  into  this  verse. 

Some  have  assumed  to  find  here  the  doctrine  that  time  is  un- 
known to  God;  that  to  his  thought  and  experience  there  is  and 
can  be  no  time.  They  are  wont  to  say  that  in  place  of  the  idea 
or  fact  of  time,  God  exists  in  one  "  eternal  now.'  All  events,  all 
points  of  what  we  call  time,  are  eternally  present  to  him — not  only 
in  the  sense  of  a  present  knowledge,  but  of  a  present  reality. 
That  is  to  say :  The  creation  of  our  world,  chronologically  to  us 
(suppose)  six  thousand  years  ago,  is  really  to  him  as  much  a  pres- 
ent fact  now  as  it  was  then.  The  final  judgment-day  is  a  trans- 
piring event  to  him  as  really  as  it  will  be  to  us  when  the  arch- 
angel s  trump  shall  wake  the  dead  and  bring  us  actually  there. 

My  great  objection  to  this  is  that  it  can  not  be  true.  God  must 
certainly  conceive  of  things  as  they  are,  i.  e.,  according  to  truth 
and  the  reality  of  things.  And  it  is  in  the  very  reality  of  things 
that  the  creation  of  the  world  is  past,  and  that  the  final  judgment- 
day  is  future.  Neither  of  these  events  is,  this  moment,  transpir- 
ing. For  this  reason  God  does  not  conceive  of  them  as  this  mo- 
ment transpiring. 

Let  us  pass  from  these  speculations — to  say  that  the  point  of 
Peter's  declaration  bears  upon  the  certainty  of  God's  word  of  prom- 
ise, and  of  threatening.  God  is  not  slow  of  promise— will  not  prove 
himself  slack  in  the  sense  of  failing  to  fulfill  in  its  time.  Some 
men  may  think  him  slack,  forgetful,  likely  enough  to  fail  alto- 
gether; but  in  this  they  are  utterly  mistaken.  The  reason  for 
his  long  delay  is  quite  another  than  this.  It  is  because  he  would 
have  none  to  perish.  He  sincerely  desires,  earnestly  longs,  to  have 
none  perish  but  all  come  to  repentance.  Therefore  it  is  that  he 
waits  on  a  sinning  world  so  long.  As  this  is  the  only  waiting  he 
has  provided  for — the  only  opportunity  for  repentance  that  he 
proposes  to  afi^ord — the  only  one  he  can  honorably  grant — there- 
fore he  would  extend  it  to  the  uttermost  limit  of  hope;  would 
wait  as  long  as  waiting  can  be  of  the  least  avail-* 

That  God  sincerely,  intensely,  desires  the  salvation  of  every  sin- 
ner, is  the  doctrine  of  all  Scripture — a  doctrine  infinitely  honora- 
])le  to  himself;  entirely  vital  to  his  scheme  of  salvation  through 
the  death  of  Christ  his  Son ;  the  only  doctrine  which  can  at  all 
account  for  the  delay  of  retri])ution  upon  defiant  scoffers  Avho  de- 
liberately insult  their  Infinite  Maker  and  Judge! Paul  has  the 

doctrine  in  very  similar  words  (1  Tim.  2:4);  "Who  will  have  all 
men  to  ))e  saved  and  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth." 
lie  wills  it  in  the  sense  of  intense  desire,  but  always  assumes  that 

*  The  older  manuscripts  put  it  "  long  suflering  toward  you"  [not 
"  us  "]. 


II.  PETEE. — CHAP.  III.  443 

their  coming  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  is  the  only  possible 
way  to  be  saved.  He  must  of  necessity  will  this  coming  to  gospel 
knowledge  as  the  only  and  indispensable  means  of  salvation. 

10.  But  the  day  of  the  Lord  will  come  as  a  thief  in  the 
night;  in  the  which  the  heavens  shall  pass  away  with  a  great 
noise,  and  the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent  heat,  the 
earth  also  and  the  works  that  are  therein  shall  be  burned  up. 

The  threatening  (or  as  respects  the  righteous  the  promise)  of 
the  great  day  of  God  will  surely  be  fulfilled.  That  day  will  come 
as  a  thief;  (the  better  texts  omit — "  in  the  night").  This  figure 
is  often  used  by  Christ;  always  to  denote  what  is  sudden,  and  as 

to  time,  unanticipated  and  unknown, In  this  day,  the  heavens 

shall  pass  away  with  a  crash,  perhaps  as  of  explosion ;  the  elements 
— component  parts  of  the  earth — burning,  shall  be  dissolved — be- 
come a  molten  mass :  the  earth  and  all  the  works  it  contains,  shall 
be  utterly  burned,  consumed.  These  words  are  strong,  and  it 
would  seem,  in  their  sense,  unmistakable.  They  teach  the  utter 
destruction  of  this  globe  by  fire.  The  interpretation  which  makes 
the  sense — not  "burnt  up"  but  merely  hurnt  over;  not  molten, 
consumed,  burned  thoroughly,  perfectly — but  scorched,  its  foul- 
ness removed  by  fire  and  the  globe  itself  prepared  for  the  eternal 
abode  of  the  righteous; — this  interpretation  seems  to  pay  no  re- 
gard to  the  words  which  Peter  has  used.  Undoubtedly  if  Peter 
had  meant  to  say  that  this  world  was  to  be  hurnt  over,  scorched 
on  its  surface  and  well  purified  by  fire,  he  could  have  found  ap- 
propriate words  for  it.  But  he  certainly  could  never  have  used 
the  words  we  find  here — to  express  those  ideas.  It  is  much  wiser 
for  us  to  search  for  the  sense  which  a  sacred  writer  obviously 
selects  words  to  express,  than  to  assume  what  he  ought  to  mean, 
and  force  his  words  to  our  preconceived  notions. 

The  destiny  of  our  earth  to  be  consumed  by  fire  could  not  be 
made  more  clear  and  sure  by  any  words  known  to  us  than  by 
these  words  of  Peter.  How  large  the  sense  of  the  word 
"  heaven  "  may  be  here,  it  is  very  difficult,  perhaps  impossible  for 
us  to  determine.  The  Hebrews  used  this  word  with  great  lati- 
tude of  meaning.  The  "fowls  of  heaven"  range  in  the  lower 
strata  of  the  atmosphere ;  the  clouds  and  the  rains  of  heaven,  in 
a  strata  somewhat  higher ;  moons,  planets,  stars,  in  far  higher 
regions.  How  many  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  if  any,  are  to  be  in- 
volved in  the  predicted  destruction  of  our  globe,  it  was,  apparently, 
not  the  purpose  of  God  to  reveal.  Nothing  beyond  what  pertains 
to  our  own  earth  can  be  of  special  importance  to  us.  At  this 
point,  therefore,  the  definite  teachings  of  revelation  have  their 
natural  limit. 

11.  Seeing  then  that  all  these  things  shall  be  dissolved, 
what  manner  of  persons  ought  ye  to  be  in  all  holy  conversa- 
tion and  godliness, 

12.  Looking  for  and  hasting  unto  the  coming  of  the  day 


444  II.  PETER. — CHAP.  III. 

of  God,  wherein  the  heavens  being  on  fire  shall  be  dissolved, 
and  the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent  heat  ? 

The  moral  lessons  follow — evermore  the  thing  of  supreme  con- 
cern. Facts  even  of  such  momentous  interest  are  not  revealed 
for  the  sake  of  gratifying  human  curiosity,  but  for  the  far  nobler 
end  of  inspiring  a  holier  life. 

Since  all  these  things  of  our  earth — all  there  is  on  it  and  of  it, 
» of  utility,  beauty,  grandeur ;  all  the  fruits  of  human  toil,  genius, 
and  skill — are  to  be  burned  up,  and  none  can  know  how  soon — 
what  manner  of  persons  ought  ye  to  be  in  holy  living  and  godli- 
ness, earnestly  looking  for  and  awaiting  with  strong  desire  the 
coming  of  that  day  of  God,  by  means  of  which  day  and  its  com- 
ing, the  heavens,  burning,  shall  be  dissolved,  and  the  elements 
[of  this  earth]  consumed  by  fire  shall  melt  ?  The  Greek  words, 
translated — "hasting  unto  the  coming"  are  very  remarkable, 
there  being  no  word  for  ^'  unto;''  and  "coming"  being  the  direct 
object  of  hasting;  the  natural  sense  is  that  of  hastening  forward 
that  event,  as  if  our  eager  longing  for  it  would  bring  it  to  pass 
the  sooner.  No  doubt  our  eager  and  earnest  longing  does  bring 
that  august  event  consciously  nearer  to  our  heart ;  make  it  seem 
more  near,  and  give  it  more  the  sense  and  the  power  of  a  reality. 
This  amounts  to  bringing  ourselves  nearer  to  it,  though  not  it  to 

us  in  real  time. This  fact  and  this  law  of  our  mind  (let  it  be 

carefully  noted),  may  give  us  the  real  explanation  of  the  sense  in 
which  the  apostles  spoke  of  that  day  as  "  near." 

Did  Peter  indeed  (unconsciously  shall  we  say  ?)  comprehend 
the  mental  philosophy  of  this  sense  of  nearness,  and  see  that  an 
eager  and  earnest  longing  does  hasten  it  along — bring  it  near, 
i.  e.,  to  our  heart  and  thought? 

When  we  come  to  consider  that  event  in  its  relation  to  actual 
chronology  we  can  give  Peter's  words  no  other  defensible  signifi^ 

cance  except  that  of  eager  and  earnest  awaiting. "  Wherein  " 

(for  in  ichich)  does  not  translate  well  the  Greek  preposition.  It 
means  rather  (as  translated  above)  by  means  of  which  coming ; 
because  of  it. 

13.  Nevertheless  we,  according  to  his  promise,  look  for 
new  heavens  and  a  new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth  right- 
eousness. 

"But"  (better  than  "nevertheless"),  we,  acccording  to  his 
promise,  are  looking  for  (the  same  "  looking"  as  in  v.  12)  "  new 

heavens    and  a   new    earth  in  which  righteousness  dwells." • 

"  His  promise  "  leads  our  thouglit  most  naturally  to  words  spoken 
by  Christ  in  person;  yet  as  we  lind  no  such  words  from  his  lips, 
we  may  accept  the  words  of  his  inspired  servants,  either  proph- 
ets or  apostles,  as  virtually  his  own.  This  accords  with  Peter  s  own 
doctrine  as  to  the  words  of  tlic  prophets  (  1  Pot.  1  :  11) — "Search- 
ing what  time  the  Spirit  of  Clirist  which  was  in  them  did  sig- 
nify."  We  find  the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth  fore-indicated 


II.  PETER. — CHAP.  III.  445 

and  therefore  promised — earliest  by  Isaiah  (51 :  16  and  65  :  17-25 
and  66  :  22) ;  later  by  John  (Rev.  21  :).  If  it  were  important  to 
determine  to  which  (if  to  either  one  exclusively)  Peter  alludes, 
we  might  find  it  necessary  to  ascertain  whether  John's  apocalypse 
was  already  in  the  hands  of  Peter.  I  judge  that  it  may  very 
probably  have  been  so ;  yet  the  early  date    of  the   epistle   would 

not  prove  that  Peter  had  seen  it. This  we  may  say  with  more 

certainty ;  that  Isaiah's  thought  was  more  clearly  of  great  moral 
and  spiritual  changes  rather  than  of  material ;  while  John  as 
manifestly  contemplates  the  material  changes  as  well.  John's 
new  heavens  and  new  earth  certainly  involve  a  new  sphere  of 
being,  new  localities,  new  worlds.  It  is  by  no  means  clear  that 
Isaiah's  language  involves  this.  He  certainly  does  not  make  this 
feature  by  any  means  prominent.  (See  my  notes  on  his  passages, 
especially  on  51 :  16,  where  his  first  allusions  to  new  heavens  and 
a  new  earth  appear.) 

14.  Wherefore,  beloved,  seeing  that  ye  look  for  such 
things,  be  diligent  that  ye  may  be  found  of  him  in  peace, 
without  spot,  and  blameless. 

15.  And  account  that  the  long  suffering  of  our  Lord  is 
salvation ;  even  as  our  beloved  brother  Paul  also  according 
to  the  wisdom  given  unto  him  hath  written  unto  you ; 

16.  As  also  in  all  his  epistles,  speaking  in  them  of  these 
things ;  in  which  are  some  things  hard  to  be  understood, 
which  they  that  are  unlearned  and  unstable  wrest,  as  they 
do  also  the  other  scriptures,  unto  their  own  destruction. 

The  moral  lessons  are  pressed  again,  enforced  by  the  authority 
of  Paul,  of  whom  he  speaks  in  terms  of  the  strongest  affection 
and  confidence.  We  need  not  infer  that  Paul  had  addressed  epis- 
tles specially  to  these  identical  churches.  Rather,  it  is  implied 
that  his  epistles  had  ere  this  been  compiled  and  circulated  exten- 
sively among  the  churches,  other  than  those  to  whom  they  were 
specially  addressed;  and  were  already  on  the  same  footing  with 
"  the  other  Scriptures" — which,  with  little  if  any  doubt,  are 
those  of  the  Old  Testament. 

What  the  points  "hard  to  be  understood"  were,  is  not  indi- 
cated. It  is  vain,  therefore,  to  conjecture.  That  some  men 
wrested  those  passages  as  well  as  what  they  found  in  other  script- 
ures, to  their  own  destruction,  is  the  main  point  to  be  noticed. 
The  unstudious  and  unstable  experienced  this  fearfully  sad  re- 
sult— as  should  be  expected.  Even  apostolic  words,  however  well 
put,  will  be  of  small  avail  to  men  who  will  not  study  them,  and 
will  not  abide  in  their  truth  when  known.  A  studious  and  do- 
cile spirit  and  a  conscientious,  obedient,  and  stable  life  are  the 
conditions  of  profit  from  the  revelations  of  God's  will  through  his 
apostles. 

17.  Ye  therefore,  beloved,  seeing  ye  know  these  things  be- 


44G  II.  PETER. — CHAP.  III. 

fore,  beware  lest  ye  a*lso,  being  led  away  with  the  error  of 
the  wicked,  fall  from  your  own  steadfastness. 

18.  But  grow  in  grace,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord 
and  Savior  Jesus  Christ.  To  him  be  glory  both  now  and 
forever.     Amen. 

Being  now  forewarned,  beloved,  be  on  your  guard  against  be- 
ing led  away  into  these  errors  of  godless  men — said  with  appar- 
ent reference  to  the  false  teachers  of  chap.  2;  and  to  those  who 
wrested  Paul's  words  to  their  own  destruction.  Let  them  beware 
of  falling  from  their  firm  position — that  which  befitted  them  and 
in  which  it  seems  they  had  stood  thus  far.  Their  safety  lay  in 
perpetually  growing  in  both  grace  and  the  knowledge  of  Jesus. 
These  words — "  grace  and  knowledge  " — express  most  compre- 
hensively and  precisely  those  things  which  should  command  their 
most  diligent  regard  and  their  unceasing  endeavors  for  growth 
and  progress.  These  points  above  any  and  all  others,  constitute 
the  burden  of  these  epistles.  And  most  deservedly.  Perpetual 
progress  in  knowledge  as  to  Christ,  and  perpetual  advance  in  the 
cultivation  of  all  the  Christian  virtues  and  graces,  make  up  the 
appropriate  activities  of  the  Christian  life.  Therein  lie  the 
Christians  strength,  his  present  usefulness  and  safety,  and  his 
ultimate  salvation. 


THE  GENERAL  EPISTLE  OF  JUDE. 


INTRODUCTIOISr. 

The  writer  of  this  very  short  epistle  describes  himself  in 
two  points  only.  First,  as  a  "servant  of  Jesus  Christ;" 
second,  as  "a  brother  of  James" — the  former  supremely 
honorable,  but  not  particularly  distinctive,  not  helpful  to- 
ward identifying  or  locating  him ;  the  latter,  however, 
making  his  person  as  definite  as  that  of  his  brother.  It  is 
usually  assumed,  with  good  reason,  that  this  James  is  the 
author  of  the  epistle  that  bears  his  name — the  renowned 
pastor  of  the  church  at  Jerusalem.  The  fact  that  James 
was  so  well  known  made  it  quite  sufficient  for  Jude  to  de- 
scribe himself  as  his  brother.  AVhatever  doubt  remains  as 
to  the  identity  of  James  will  therefore  equally  affect  Jude — 
the  main  one  being  whether  they  were  of  the  original 
tAvelve,  or  of  the  group  of  "  brethren  of  the  Lord,"  brought 
into  the  church  and  into  Christian  service  about  the  time  of 
the  Lord's  resurrection.  This  question  has  been  treated  in 
my  introduction  to  the  epistle  of  James,  and  need  not  be 
re-opened. 

So  far  as  can  be  learned  from  the  introduction  to  this 
epistle,  the  people  addressed  may  have  lived  anywhere,  and 
may  have  been  either  Jews  or  Gentiles.  They  are  defined 
only  as  being  the  friends  and  followers  of  Christ.  The  epis- 
tle is  therefore  what  is  called  catholic ; — not  in  the  modern 
sense,  opposed  to  Protestant,  but  in  the  more  ancient  sense, 
universal,  unrestricted,  designed  and  adapted  for  all  the 
people  of  God. — It  should  be  added,  however,  that  the 
strong  resemblance  between  this  epistle  and  2  Peter  2, 
coupled  with  the  allusions  in  v.  17,  18,  seems  to  show  that 
the  people  addressed  here  are  the  same  whom  Peter  ad- 
dresses there. 

The  main  purpose  of  the  epistle  is  indicated  clearly,  and 
suffices  to  place  this  by  the  side  of  2  Peter  in  the  one  noble 

(447) 


448  INTRODUCTION. 

aim  of  admonishing  the  saints  to  stand  for  the  defense  of 
gospel  truths  against  false  teachers  and  their  perversions  of 
the  true  gospel  doctrine.  With  this  he  pertinently  couples 
exhortations  to  high  Christian  attainment  and  a  steadfast  life 
in  all  godliness. — The  close  similarity  of  this  epistle  with  2 
Peter  2  will  be  very  obvious.  His  allusions  in  v.  17,  18, 
may  be  regarded  as  probably  having  reference  to  Peter 
among  other  apostles ;  and  if  so,  will  place  the  date  of  this 
epistle  somewhat  later  than  that  of  Peter. 


THE  GENEEAL  EPISTLE  OF  JUDE. 


1.  Jude,  the  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  brother  of 
James,  to  them  that  are  sanctified  by  God  the  Father,  and 
preserved  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  called : 

2.  Mercy  unto  you,  and  peace,  and  love,  be  multiplied. 
The    older   manuscripts    concur   in   making  the   text   beloved 

(yjyaTTtjfAsvota)  instead  of  ''  sanctified."  Instead  of  supplying 
"and,"  as  in  our  English  version,  without  authority,  it  seems 
better  to  read  the  whole  clause — "  To  the  called,  beloved  in  God 
the  Father  and  kept  for  Jesus  Christ."'  Thus,  as  Bengel  remarks, 
"the  beginning  and  the  consummation  of  salvation  are  pointed 
out" — the  agency  from  which  it  takes  its  rise,  and  that  also 
which  crowns  it  with  victory  in  the  end.  So  salvation  from  first 
to  last  is  of  God  through  his  dear  Son. 

Each  apostle  seems  to  have  his  own  form  of  benediction.  Peter 
in  both  his  epistles  this:  "Grace  and  peace  be  multiplied  to  you" 
(1  Pet.  1  :  2,  and  2  Pet.  1:  2) — which  is  varied  in  Jude  to  this: 
"  To  you  may  mercy,  peace,  and  love  be  multiplied."  It  is  de- 
lightful to  think  how  deep  and  warm  were  the  outgushings  of  an 
apostle's  sympathy  and  prayer  which  sought  expression  in  these 
rich  words. 

3.  Beloved,  when  I  gave  all  diligence  to  write  unto  you 
of  the  common  salvation,  it  was  needful  for  me  to  write  unto 
you,  and  exhort  you  that  ye  should  earnestly  contend  for  the 
faith  which  was  once  delivered  unto  the  saints. 

In  the  first  clause,  "using"  (literally  making)  "all  diligence 
to  write  unto  you  about  our  common  salvation,"  some  critics  find 
an  intimation  that  Jude  once  had  it  in  mind  to  write  more  exten- 
sively than  here  in  this  short  epistle — a  purpose  which  may  or 
may  not  have  been  carried  into  efiect.  If  so,  it  is  unfortunately 
lost.  If  not,  then,  by  some  means  unknown  to  us,  he  may  have 
been  diverted  or  otherwise  prevented  from  its  execution.  These 
are  only  conjectures;  for  the  clause  may  indicate  nothing  beyond 
reflection,  desire,  or  purpose  to  write  in  a  more  general  way  than 
here,  during  which  reflection  he  became  impressed  with  the  ne- 
cessity of  writing  to  the  brethren  for  the  special  purpose  named 
here.  "  I  held  it  (saw  and  felt  it)  a  necessity  to  write  to  you,  ex- 
horting that  ye  contend  earnestly  (agonize,  Greek)  for  the  faith 
once  delivered  to  the  saints." — "The  faith  '  here  is  the  system 
of  revealed  truth;  not  faith  subjectively  considered;  not  "  faith" 

(449) 


450  JUDE. 

in  the  sense  of  intellectual  belief  or  even  of  heart-trust,  but  in 
the  sense  of  the  things  believed,  because  revealed  from  God  to  his 
holy  apostles  and  prophets.  No  doubt,  faith  in  the  mind  and  the 
heart  should  be  diligently  cultivated  both  by  personal  effort  upon 
ourselves  and  by  social  effort  upon  others ;  but  this  is  not  the 
point  of  Jude's  exhortation  here.  He  is  thinking  of  the  glorious 
gospel  truth,  then  brought  into  peril  by  certain  men  whom  he 
proceeds  to  describe,  whose  influence  he  implores  his  brethren  to 
withstand  at  the  start  and  to  the  utmost! — This  earnest  exhorta- 
tion bears  witness  to  his  sense  of  the  inestimable  value  of  gospel 
truth  and  of  the  imperative  demands  upon  all  right-thinking  men 
to  stand  for  its  defense  with  wise  and  most  determined,  constant 
endeavor.  Let  no  cry  against  bigotry  alarm  or  deter  them ;  let 
no  artful  effort  to  decry  doctrine  (or  even  "dogma")  have  any 
otherr  influence  than  to  gird  their  loins  to  mightier  endeavor. 
The  fiiith  [truth]  that  once  came  down  from  God  is  too  precious 
to  be  sacrificed,  too  noble  to  be  vilified,  too  vital  to  be  toned  down 
or  in  the  least  modified.  Let  it  abide  and  live  on  in  the  keeping 
of  the  church  of  God  through  the  light  and  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  till  its  glory  as  it  shines  on  earth  shall  fade  into  the  richer, 
sublimer  light  of  heaven! 

4.  For  there  are  certain  men  crept  in  unawares,  who  were 
before  of  old  ordained  to  this  condemnation,  ungodly  men, 
turning  the  grace  of  our  God  into  lasciviousness,  and  deny- 
ing the  only  Lord  God,  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

For  certain  men  have  cunningly  insinuated  themselves  into 
your  church  communion — men  not  springing  up  to  the  surprise 
of  God,  but  fore-written  (Greek)  of  old,  well  known  long  before- 
hand;  Godless  men. That  they  "  turned  the  grace  of  God  into 

lasciviousness  "  means  only  that  they  abused,  perverted  it  for  pur- 
poses of  lasciviousness,  self-indulgence  in  their  OAvn  base  pas- 
sions, and  not  by  any  means  that  they  changed  its  essential  nat- 
ure. "What  they  in  fact  did  is  further  described  by  going  back 
to  the  root  and  primary  cause  of  their  lasciviousness — viz.,  the 
inutilatit)n  and  perversion  of  God's  regenerating  truth ;  they 
"  denied  the  only  Monarch  {h?(S~otYjv),  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  ' 
Probably  this  is  essentially  what  Peter  (2  Eps.  2:  1)  has  ex- 
pressed in  the  words,  "  denying  the  Lord  that  bought  them."  If 
so,  it  shows  that  fatal  error  in  regard  to  the  person  and  work  of 
Christ  sprang  up  l^efore  the  death  of  the  latest  apostles — a  fact  to 
which  John's  epistles  bear  most  abundant  and  painful  attestation 
(I  John  2  •  18-22  and  4 :  1-3,  and  2  John  7,  II).  No  blow  could 
possibly  strike  the  gospel  system  nearer  to  its  heart  than  this. 
Jt  matters  comparatively  little  whether  this  false  teaching  smote 
at  his  true  divinity,  his  real  humanity,  or  his  atoning  sacrifice; 
the  mischievous  results  would  be  essentially  the  same.  No  one 
of  the  great  facts  pertaining  to  Christ's  nature  and  redemptive 
work  can  be  spared.  Not  one  can  be  mutilated  without  damage, 
not  to  say  rain,  to  the  whole. 


JUDE.  451 

5.  I  will  therefore  put  you  in  remembrance,  though  ye 
once  knew  tliis,  how  that  the  Lord,  having  saved  the  people 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  afterward  destroyed  them  that 
believed  not. 

6.  And  the  angels  which  kept  not  their  first  estate,  but 
left  their  own  habitation,  he  hath  reserved  in  everlasting 
chains  under  darkness  unto  the  judgment  of  the  great  day. 

7.  Even  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  and  the  cities  about  them 
in  like  manner,  giving  themselves  over  to  fornication,  and 
going  after  strange  flesh,  are  set  forth  for  an  example,  suf- 
fering the  vengeance  of  eternal  fire. 

The  underlying  logic  of  this  epistle — the  points  assumed  as  the 

basis  for  its  line  of  thought — should  be  noticed, The  great 

present  fact  which  stirs  the  solicitude  of  this  apostle  is — that 
vital  gospel  truth  is  imperiled  by  the  perversions  of  ungodly, 
lascivious  men.  The  facts  assumed  in  Jude's  presentation  of 
their  sin  and  doom  are,  that  ungodly  lasciviousness  naturally  be- 
gets unbelief  in  God's  revealed  truth;  that  God  has,  therefore, 
brought  down  his  most  stern  and  fearful  judgments  on  unbeliev- 
ing men  for  their  great  sin,  leveling  these  judgments  especially 
against  those  bold  manifestations  of  unbelief,  rebellion,  lust, 
crime,  which  the  history  of  guilty  men  and   devils  brings  to  our 

view. Hence   he  would   remind   them   of  what   the   ancient 

Scriptures  so  fully  teach — that  "the  Lord  having  saved  his  Israel 
out  of  Egypt,  afterward  destroyed  them  that  believed  not."  The 
unbelief  developed  upon  the  report  of  the  spies  (Num.  13  and 
14)  is  specially  referred  to — a  developed  unbelief  at  once  most 
unreasonable,  very  extensive,  for  it  pervaded  the  masses  of  men 
of  mature  years,  and  most  offensive  to  God.  It  virtually  para- 
lyzed the  moral  stamina  of  the  whole  nation  and  thoroughly  un- 
fitted them  to  enter  Canaan. 

Next,  "the  angels  who  kept  not  their  first  estate"  [of  holy 
obedience],  "but  left  their  own  habitation"  [as  being  no  longer 
fit  for  the  realms  of  purity  and  bliss],  "God  had  bound  over  in 
everlasting  chains  under  darkn-ess  unto  the  judgment  of  the 
great  day."  Peter  testifies  to  the  same  points  of  their  destiny. 
Next,  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  and  the  cities  adjacent  are  de- 
scribed in  the  points  of  their  sin  and  of  their  doom.  Unre- 
strained and  unnatural  lust  was  their  damning  sin ;  fire,  the 
emblem  of  the  eternal  doom  of  the  lost,  became  the  means  of 
their  punishment.  They  stand  before  the  ages  as  the  example 
of  what  it  is  to  "endure  the  vengeance  of  eternal  fire."  It  can 
not  be  supposed  that  Jude  meant  to  say  that  the  fire  which  con- 
sumed Sodom  was  itself  eternal.  But  he  did  mean  to  say  that  it 
was  the  symbol  of  it — that  their  case  stands  before  the  world, 
lying  upon  the  pages  of  the  world's  history,  as  the  example,  the 
illustration,  of  "suffering  the  vengeance  of  eternal  fire." 


452  JUDE. 

8.  Likewise  also  these  filthy  dreamers  defile  the  flesh,  de- 
spise dominion,  and  speak  evil  of  dignities. 

In  the  Greek  words  of  Judc  as  to  "these  dreamers,"  there  is 
no  authority  for  the  word  "filthy."  It  is  better  not  to  add  to 
the  inspired  words.  That  they  Avere  "  dreamers  "  indicates  that 
their  notions  were  fanciful,  mere  dreams,  altogether  unreliable. 

"  Defiling  the  flesh  "  classes   them  with  the  men  of  Sodom. 

They  discarded  authority;  spake  evil,  in   reproachful  terms,  of 

what  should  command  respect. Peter  (2  Eps.  2:  10)  uses  the 

same  descriptive  terms — doubtless  for  the  same  class  of  men. 
Both  proud  and  vain,  intensely  self-assuming,  they  had  no  re- 
spect for  true  merit,  no  deference  for  just  authority,  no  honest 
fear  of  even  God. 

9.  Yet  Michael  the  archangel,  when  contending  with  the 
devil  he  disputed  about  the  body  of  Moses,  durst  not  bring 
against  him  a  railing  accusation,  but  said,  the  Lord  rebuke 
thee. 

10.  But  these  speak  evil  of  those  things  which  they  know 
not:  but  what  they  know  naturally,  as  brute  beasts,  in 
those  things  they  corrupt  themselves. 

11.  Woe  unto  them!  for  they  have  gone  in  the  "way  of 
Cain,  and  ran  greedily  after  the  error  of  Balaam'  for  reward, 
and  perished  in  the  gainsaying  of  Core. 

It  is  a  striking  illustration  of  angelic  purity  that  ]\Iichael,  a 
lofty  archangel,  abstained  from  railing  at  even  the  devil,  deep 
though  his  convictions  were  that  the  devil  was  utterly  in  the 
wrong.  It  was  safer  in  its  reaction  upon  his  own  spirit  to  say 
simply — "The  Lord  rebuke  thee."  I  leave  your  case  with  God. 
I  can  have  no  sympathy  with  your  spirit ;  no  confidence  in  your 
word  or  your  purposes  ;  but  let  God  be  your  judge  and  mine. 

The  question  at  issue  between  them  was  over  the  body  of  Moses 
— the  special  points  of  it  being  left  open  to  every  man's  con- 
jecture.  How  Jude  came  to  know  of  this  dispute  he  has  not 

informed  us.  If  we  say  by  tradition,  the  question  still  returns 
as  to  the  original  authoi'ity  for  the  tradition — on  which  point  we 
have  no  wisdom. 

It  shows  the  reckless  spirit  of  these  false  teachers  that  they  in- 
dulged in  blasphemous  words  as  to  things  of  which  they  knew 
nothing.  As  to  things  of  which  tlioy  should  have  animal  in- 
stincts (like  irrational  creatures),  in  those  thoy  corrupt  them- 
selves. Their  drift  toward  moral  corruption  perverts  even  their 
animal  instincts,  making  them  more  vile  th;in  beasts — more  base 
in  tiniir  lasciviousness  than  animals  that  have  neither  reason  nor 

conscience. This  makes  a  dark  pi(;ture  of  baseness  and  crime 

— in  the  first  point,  putting  thcnii  lower  tlian  the  beasts  them- 
selves; and  in  the  next,  along  side  of  the  must  notorious  sinners 


JUDE.  453 

of  Scripture  history; — wicked  as  the  first  murderer  Cain;  hungry 
and  mad  for  the  gains  of  lying  divination  as  Balaam ;  ambitious 
and  defiant  of  God's  authority  as  Korah. 

12.  These  are  spots  in  your  feasts  of  charity,  when  they 
feast  with  you,  feeding  themselves  without  fear:  clouds  they 
are  without  water,  carried  about  of  w^inds;  trees  whose  fruit 
withereth,  without  fruit,  twice  dead,  plucked  up  by  the 
roots ; 

13.  Raging  waves  of  the  sea,  foaming  out  their  own 
shame;  wandering  stars,  to  whom  is  reserved  the  blackness 
of  darkness  forever. 

On  the  word  rendered  "  spots,"  the  question  of  exact  signifi- 
cance lies  between  the  English  version  "spots" — a  disgrace  to 
your  communion ;  and  the  sense  of  breakers — hidden  rocks  upon 
which  ships  are  wrecked.  Greek  usage  favors  the  latter  ;  the  im- 
mediate context  and  the  analogous  passage  in  Peter  (2  Eps.  2:13) 
favors  the  former, They  obtrude  themselves  into  your  love- 
feasts  to  indulge  their  gluttonous  propensities — not    to    cultivate 

fraternal  sympathy — not  for  any  worthy  purpose  whatever. 

Waterless  and  wind-driven  clouds,  corresponds  to  Peter's  de- 
scription (2  Eps.  2:  17). Utterly  fruitless,    barren,  like  trees 

more  than  dead,  even  rotten,  Avith  not  sense  enough  to  conceal 
their  own  shame.  The  point  of  comparison  in  the  figure — "  wan- 
dering stars  " — we  might  determine  with  more  confidence  if  wo 
better  understood  their  notions  of  astronomy.  With  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  great  laws  of  gravitation  we  should  call  men  "  wan- 
dering stars  who  had  broken  loose  from  the  great  bonds  which 
hold  the  moral  universe  in  order,  obedient  to  God — and  were 
sweeping  wildly  unto  their  own  certain  and  deserved  ruin.  "  The 
blackness  of  darkness  "  is  their  appropriate  place. 

14.  And  Enoch  also,  the  seventh  from  Adam,  prophesied 
of  these,  saying,  Behold,  the  Lord  cometh  with  ten  thousand 
of  his  saints, 

15.  To  execute  judgment  upon  all,  and  to  convince 
all  that  are  ungodly  among  them  of  all  their  ungodly 
deeds  which  they  have  ungodly  comtnitted,  and  of  all  their 
hard  speeches  which  ungodly  sinners  have  spoken  against 
him. 

"Prophesied"  maybe  taken  in  the  general  sense,  preached — 
except  so  far  as  his  words  respecting  a  final  judgment  may  be 
considered  a  prophecy. — Enoch  preached  to  such  sinners  as  these 
of  wh(mi  he  speaks,  and  of  the  final  judgment  and  its  objects, 
here  defined  to  be — "to  execute  judgment  upon  all  the  race;  to 
convict  the  ungodly  of  their  wicked  deeds,  wickedly  perpetrated, 
and  of  their  hard  [severe,  reproachful]  words  which  they  (un- 
20 


454  JUDE. 

godly  sinners)  had  spoken  against  God."  This  is  an  eminently 
sensible  presentation  of  tlie  purposes  of  the  final  judgment: — to 
convince,  the  wicked  of  their  guilt ;  to  set  before  them  its  enor- 
mity and  its  just  desert,  so  that  every  mouth  may  be  stopped,  and 
all  the  world  stand  consciously  self-convicted  and  self-condemned 
before  his  bar.  What  can  be  more  appropriate,  more  wise,  more 
righteous,  than  this  ?  Undoubtedly  we  may  somewhat  enlarge 
the  sphere  of  this  convicting  influence,  and  say — God  would  not 
only  convince  all  the  ungodly  of  the  justice  of  their  doom;  but 
would  set  forth  his  infinite  justice  before  all  the  unsinning,  in- 
telligent universe,  before  all  the  unfallen  "  angels,  principalities, 
and  powers  in  the  heavenly  places,"  who,  as  they  must  see  the 
awful  doom  of  the  lost,  should  certainly  be  made  to  know  their 
ill-desert.  The  doom  is  so  dreadful,  the  sufferings  so  fearful  in  their 
nature  and  so  appalling  in  their  eternal  duration,  that  they  must 
beget  a  deep  sympathy  with  the  sufferers,  save  as  the  manifesta- 
tion of  their  yet  more  awful  guilt  and  of  their  utter  rottenness 
of  moral  character  may  and  will  impress  a  sense  of  the  righteous- 
ness and  of  the  simply  absolute  inevitableness  of  their  doom.  O 
what  lessons  are  to  be  taught  there  upon  the  intrinsic,  eternal 
mischief  and  ruin  that  come  of  rebellion  against  God  ! — The  great 
judgment-day  will  unfold  before  the  eyes  of  all  the  intelligent 
universe  the  material  for  unending  study  and  thought — the  great 
facts  out  of  which  must  come  convictions  that  can  never  Avane — 
convictions  as  to  God's  ineffable  wisdom,  righteousness,  and  love; 
convictions  as  to  the  unspeakable  guilt  and  the  naturally  inevita- 
ble ruin  of  rebels  against  the  throne  of  God. 

The  question  will  be  raised — From  what  source  did  Jude  ob- 
tain these  facts  in  regard  to  the  prophecy  of  Enoch  ?  All  we 
can  say  is  :  possibly  by  direct  inspiration  ;  more  probably  from  tra- 
dition. A  volume  called  ''  The  Book  of  Enoch  "  has  been  -brought 
fully  before  the  literary  world  during  the  present  century,  written 
probably  in  the  second  century  before  Christ,  though  possibly 
(as  some  suppose)  not  until  the  second  century  after  Christ.  It 
has  been  queried  whether  Jude  may  not  have  borrowed  from  this 
book  the  statements  made  here.  Perhaps  so.  This  is  the  opin- 
ion of  some  learned  critics.  But  even  if  so,  it  is  highly  probable 
that  Jude  had  access  to  the  same  traditionary  sources  from  which 
the  writer  of  this  "book  of  Enoch"  drew  his  staple  facts. 
» 

16.  These  are  murmurers,  compliiiners,  walking  after 
their  own  lusts;  and  their  mouth  speaketh  great  swelling 
ivords,  having  men's  persons  in  admiration  because  of  advan- 
tage. 

The  last  clause — "Having  men's  persons  in  admiration  because 
of  advantage"  is  another  mode  of  saying — thoy  "  have  respect  of 
persons" — regurd  for  ext(>rnal  distinctions  that  have  no  intrinsic 
merit — a  culpable  partiality  that  has  only  supreme  selfishness  for 
its  bottom. Thus  Jude  closes  his  extended  description  of  the 


JUDE.  455 

men  whose  mischievous  sentiments  and  teachings  were  then 
bringing  peril  upon  all  truth  and  righteousness. 

17.  But,  beloved,  remember  ye  the  words  which  -were 
spoken  before  of  the  apostles  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ; 

18.  How  that  they  told  you  there  should  be  mockers  in  the 
last  time,  who  should  walk  after  their  own  ungodly  lusts. 

19.  These  be  they  who  separate  themselves,  sensual,  hav- 
ing not  the  Spirit. 

This  allusion  to  forespoken  words  of  apostles  has  its  only  perfect 
counterpart  in  2  Pet.  3  :  3,where  we  have  the  very  term  "  mockers," 
and  the  same  description — "  walking  after  their  ungodly  lusts." 
This  seems  to  indicate  that  Jude  wrote  later  than  Peter,  and  with 
Peter's  epistle  before  him,  and  also  in  the  hands  of  those  to  whom 

he  wrote. "  Separate  themselves" — "  Separatists,"  schismatics, 

severing  themselves  from  their  brethren  for  no  good  reason. 

"Having  not  the  Spirit"  of  God  in  their  hearts — a  fact  suffi- 
ciently demonstrated  by  their  sensuality,  and  by  their  divorcing 
themselves  so  readily  and  causelessly  from  the  Christian  brother- 
hood. The  words  show  that  in  the  judgment  of  the  apostles,  the 
presence  or  absence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  heart  might  be 
readily  known  from  the  spirit  and  the  life  of  men.  The  Spirit  of 
God  never  can  be  an  inert  presence — never  a  power  unto  noth- 
ing ;  but  is  always  a  power  unto  holiness — unto  the  real  Christian 
life.  If  this  poAver  makes  no  manifestation  of  itself,  the  pre- 
sumption must  be  that  its  presence  is  not  there.  "  Out  of  the 
abundance  of  the  heart  the  mouth  speaketh  ; "  out  of  the  deep  love 
and  pure  faith  of  the  heart,  the  life  takes  its  tone  and  the  very 
soul  its  stamp. 

20.  But  ye,  beloved,  building  up  yourselves  on  your  most 
holy  faith,  praying  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 

21.  Keep  yourselves  in  the  love  of  God,  looking  for  the 
mercy  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  unto  eternal  life. 

*'  Building  yourselves  up  "  (in  the  sense  of  Christian  edifica- 
tion) "  on  your  most  holy  faith"  signifies  hy  means  of  it — using 
it  as  the  means,  the  instrumentality  of  your  strength  and  effi- 
ciency.  The  thoughtful    Bible-reader  will  ask  whether  faith 

here  is  the  system  of  truth  believed  (as  in  v.  3  above),  or  the 
heart's  belief  of  that  truth.  Of  course  both  must  be  involved; 
but  the  figure  of  building  up  (as  a  house  upon  its  foundation)  is 
best  answered  if  we  take  it  as  the  system  of  Christian  doctrine. 

"  Praying  in  the  Holy  Ghost" — relying  on  his  guiding  hand 

upon  your  thought  and  his  inspiring  power  in  your  soul — corre- 
sponds to  Paul:  "Praying  always  with  all  prayer  and  supplica- 
tion in  the  >SpmZ"(Eph.  6^  18) ;  also  to  this  promise  :  "  I  will  pour 
upon  the  house  of  David  a  Spirit  of  grace  and  of  supplication  " 
(Zech.  12:  10);  and  also  to  these  words  of  Paul:  "The    Spirit 


456  JUDE. 

helpeth  our  infirmities;  for  we  know  not  what  wo  should  pray 
for  as  we  ought:  but  the  Spirit  itself  maketh  intercession  for  us 
with  groanings  which  can  not  be  uttered"  (Rom.  8:  26).  All 
these  exhortations  are  at  once  beautifully  terse  and  plain,  and 
surprisingly  rich  in  spiritual  significance,  l^lessed  are  they  who 
accept  and  obey ! 

In  the  phrase — "  keep  yourselves  in  the  love  of  God  " — the  last 
•words  might  mean  either  our  love  to  God,  or  God's  love  to  us. 
In  the  former  sense  we  have  this  result:  Keep  yourselves  in  the 
constant  exercise  of  love  to  God ;  in  the  latter — this :  Maintain 
such  a  spiritual  state  that  God  shall  love  you  constantly.  The 
former  is  the  more  natural  construction,  particularly  because  all 
the  precepts  in  this  connection  look  toward  personal  Christian 
exercises  of  mind  and  heart. 

22.  And  of  some  have  compassion,  making  a  difference: 

23.  And  others  save  with  fear,  pulling  them  out  of  the 
fire ;  hating  even  the  garment  spotted  by  the  flesh. 

On  these  verses  to  the  word  "fire,"  the  three  oldest  manuscripts 
differ  somewhat  from  each  other,  and  yet  more,  from  the  formerly 
received  Greek  versions.  Tischendorf  settles  down  upon  a  text 
which  may  be  translated  thus  :  One  class,  men  of  wavering  mind, 
convince  [with  argument]  ;  another  class,  save,  pulling  them  out 
of  the  fire  ;  on  others,  have  compassion  with  fear.."^ 

Then  follows  the  last  clause  as  in  all  the  old  texts :  "  Hating 
even  the  garment  defiled  by  the  flesh" — with  a  deep  sense  of  the 
shameful  guilt  of  unbridled  licentiousness. 

24.  Now  unto  him  that  is  able  to  keep  you  from  falling, 
and  to  present  you  faultless  before  the  presence  of  his  glory 
with  exceeding  joy, 

25.  To  the  only  wise  God  our  Savior,  be  glory  and  maj- 
esty, dominion  and  power,  both  now  and  ever.     Amen. 

Following  the  corrected  text,  these  verses  may  be  translated :  To 
him  who  is  able  to  keep  you  never  stumbling,  and  to  present  you 
spotless  before  his  glorious  presence  with  exultation — to  the  only 
God  our  Savior  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  be  glory  and  maj- 
esty, dominion  and  power  from  all  eternity,  and  now,  and  unto  all 
eternity.    Amen. 

''Able  to  keep"  uses  the  strongest  Greek  word  for  actual  force, 

*  The  reader  may  be  interested  to  see  the  variations  in  the  three 
oldest  manuscripts  ;  thus :  The  Sinaitic  :  "And  of  some  who  waver, 
have  con)]>assion  ;  and  otliers  save,  i)nllini(  them  out  of  the  fire; 
a)i(l  of  others  have  coinp:ission  with  fear."  Tlie  Vatican:  "And  of 
some  who  waver,  have  compassion  ;  save  thcin,  i)iilling  them  out  of 
the  fire;  and  of  others  have  compassion  with  fear."  Alexandrian  : 
"  And  convince  some  who  waver;  and  others  save,  pnliing  tliem 
out  of  the  fire;  and  of  others  have  compassion  with  fear." 


JUDE.  457 

power.  "  To  keep  you  never  stumbling" — is  the  terse  and  forci- 
ble form  of  the  original  thought.  The  word  '  wise"  before 
"God  "  is  omitted,  and  with  improvement  to  the  sense  ;  inasmuch 
as  the  phrase — "the  only  wise  God"  might  be  understood  to  im- 
ply another  God,  not  wise.  The  passage  (1  Tim.  1:17)  has 
the  same  corrected  text.  The  addition  of  the  past  eternity  will 
be  noticed,  the  ascription  of  glory  and  majesty  being  not  only 
now  and  through  all  the  future,  but  through  the  past  as  well. 

Thus  closes  this  gem  of  apostolic  thought  and  heart.  We  have 
abundant  reason  to  be  thankful  for  "Jude;  "  thankful  that  this 
short  letter  was  not  left  out  of  the  canon  because  so  brief;  thank- 
ful that  we  have  its  few  words,  so  pregnant  with  spiritual  rich- 
ness and  counsels  of  wisdom. 


APPENDIX. 


CANON  FARRAR'S  DOCTRINE  OF  "ETERNAL  HOPE." 

In  definite  statement  (Preface  to  ''Eternal  Hope,"  pages 
22,  23),  Canon  Farrar  admits  "  that  there  is  a  terrible  retri- 
bution upon  impenitent  sinners  both  here  and  hereafter;  that 
without  hoHness  no  man  can  ever  see  the  Lord ;  that  sin  can 
not  be  forgiven  till  it  is  forsaken  and  repented  of;  and  that 
the  doom  which  fiills  on  sin  is  both  merciful  and  just!"* 

But  while  avowedly  holding  these  opinions,  he  dissents  from 
and  even  denounces  these  four  features  of  what  he  regards 
as  "  the  common,  popular  view  of  the  sinner's  doom;"  viz.: 

(1.)  Its  physical  torments; 

(2.)  Their  necessarily  eternal  duration; 

(3.)  That  it  falls  on  the  masses — the  immense  majority  of 
the  race; 

(4.)  That  in  the  case  of  impenitent,  unpardoned  sinners, 
it  begins  at  death,  and  thenceforward  is  forever  irreversible. 

*  These  words — "both  merciful  and  just" — su^^gest  at  tlie  outset 
one  of  the  stubborn  difficuUies  to  be  met  in  any  discussion  whatever 
with  Canon  Farrar.  In  the  strict  and  ordinary  usage  of  these  words, 
a  doom  according  to  the  sinner's  deserts,  or  (which  is  tlie  same  thing) 
according  to  tlie  law  of  God,  is,  and  is  c'.i\\cd,jiist.  Over  against 
this,  if  the  just  sentence  of  the  broken  law  is  overruled  and  set 
aside,  tlie  sinner  being  treated  by  God  infinitely  better  than  his  de- 
serts, it  is  fitly  said  to  be  of  his  mercy.  Thus,  justice  and  mercy,  as 
related  to  the  sinner's  doom,  are  essential  opposites,  having  noclenionts 
in  common.  Consecpiently,  no  sinner's  doom  can  be  at  once  accord- 
ing to  justice  and  according  to  mercy.  The  sentence  of  God's  law 
against  the  sinner  can  not  be  at  one  and  the  same  time  overruled 
and  executed.  No  criminal  can  be  at  the  same  moment  pardoned 
and  hung.  These  two  destinies  will  not  admit  of  being  confounded, 
mixed  together.  The  one  is  done  under  law  and  according  to  justice; 
the  other  sets  law  aside  by  the  exercise  of  mercy.  The  difficulty 
with  Canon  Farrar's  statcnu'ut  is  either  in  the  words  chosen  or  in  the 
thought ;  either  the  words  dishonor  established  usage,  or  the  thought 
dishonors  the  truth. 


459 

Before  I  proceed  to  debate  these  points,  it  is  important  to 
say  that  upon  the  first,  I  make  no  issue.  Whether  the  sin- 
ner's doom  includes  physical  suffering,  or  pertains  to  mind 
only,  it  may  be  impossible  for  us  to  determine,  nor  is  it  at  all 
important.  That  his  sufterings  are  chiefly  those  of  the  mind 
must  be  inferred  from  the  nature  of  the  case.  But  the  full 
and  precise  significance  of  the  words  which  describe  it — words 
admitted  (at  least  by  myself)  to  be  figurative,  can  never  be 
reached  with  certainty  from  our  present  stand-point  of  knowl- 
edge. 

His  third  point — viz.,  that  the  vast  majority  of  the  race 
will  be  lost,  I  by  no  means  believe,  resting  my  faith  in  the 
salvation  of  the  very  great  majority  of  the  race,  not  on  tlie 
future  repentance  of  men  dying  in  their  sins,  but  on  the 
prevalence  and  power  of  the  gospel  through  the  long  ages  of 
its  triumph  under  the  present  gospel  dispensation.  But  I 
must  waive  the  discussion  of  this  point,  purposely  discounting, 
however,  all  the  argument  for  ''eternal  hope"  which  he 
would  fain  derive  out  of  the  recoil  of  human  hearts  from  the 
thought  that  the  race  are  to  be  almost  universally  lost.     No 

wonder  the  hearts  of  men  recoil  from  this  supioosition. 

Thus  the  reader  will  see  that  my  issue  with  Canon  Farrar  is 
reduced  essentially  to  two  points:  (1.)  That  the  sinner's  fu- 
ture doom  is  eternal;  and  (2.)  That  after  his  death  it  is 
irreversible. 

Fairness  of  discussion  will  be  promoted  by  quoting  freely 
Mr.  Farrar's  own  words  in  which  he  gives  his  opinion  as  to 
what  should  be  done  in  behalf  of  truth — thus :  ' '  Restore 
the  ancient  belief  in  an  intermediate  state ;  correct  the  glaring 
and  most  unhappy  translation  of  our  English  version;  judge 
the  words  of  our  blessed  Lord  by  the  most  ordinary  rules  of 
honest  and  unprejudiced  interpretation ;  abstain  from  press- 
ing the  literal  acceptance  of  passages  most  obviously  meta- 
phorical ;  give  due  weight  to  the  countless  passages  of  Script- 
ure from  Genesis  to  Revelation  which  speak  of  a  love,  and 
a  mercy,  and  a  triumph  of  long-suffering  over  offended  justice 
which  are  to  us  irreconcilable  with  the  belief  that  the  un- 
happy race  of  God's  children  in  this  great  family  of  man  are 
all  but  universally  doomed  to  endless  torturing,  at  the  very 
thought  of  which  the  heart  faints  and  is  sick  with  horror ; 
give  to  the  reason  and  the  conscience  of  man  some  voice  in 
judging  of  a  scheme  which  seems  to  outrage  all  that  is  noblest 
and  holiest  within  them  ;  separate  from  the  notion  of  "  hell" 
(if  the  word  be  restored  to  its  ancient  sense)  the  arbitrary 


460  "eternal  hope." 

fancies  of  human  ignorance  and  human  passion;  accept  the 
merciful  opinion,  which  the  church  has  always  permitted 
though  she  has  not  formally  adopted  them — that  the  fire  of 
Gehenna  is  metaphorical ;  that  there  is  a  possibility  of  future 
purification ;  that  most  men  will  at  last  be  saved  ;  hold  that, 
as  the  word  "  damnation"  once  implied,  the pwna damni,  i.  e., 
the  loss  (it  may  be  forever)  of  the  beatific  vision,  is — far  more 
than  any  poena  sensus  or  physical  torture,  the  essence  of  the 
sufferings  of  the  lost: — Do  this,  and  you  have  removed  the 
greatest  of  all  stumbling-blocks  to  the  path  of  faith  and  added 
incomparably  to  our  love  of  God  and  to  the  peace,  the  hope, 
the  dignity,  the  happiness  of  human  life."  (Preface  to  "Eter- 
nal liope,"  pages  25-27.) 

The  sensible  reader  will  be  impressed  with  the  prominence, 
not  to  say  the  excess  of  rhetoric  in  this  statement.  On  a  cer- 
tain class  of  readers — perhaps  a  somewhat  large  class — Mr. 
Farrar's  rhetoric  will  be  mightier  than  his  logic.  Yet  my 
sense  of  propriety  revolts  from  the  idea  of  discussing  such  a 
suliject  rhetorically.  I  write  for  those  who  seek  truth  only 
and  who  have  discernment  enough  to  see  that  truth  must  be 
sought  from  the  Scriptures,  in  the  best  exercise  of  good  sense 
and  reason — which  means  logic,  not  rhetoric,  and  which  recog- 
nizes our  responsibility  to  God  to  deal  honestly  with  his  re- 
vealed word  and  honestly  as  toward  our  fellow-beings  whose 
eternal  destinies,  this  revealed  Word  and  this  only  can  make 
known. 

My  plan  forbids  my  reviewing  Canon  Farrar's  entire  vol- 
ume in  detail.  The  utmost  I  can  propose  is  to  put  his  main 
])oints  into  systematic  form,  and  then  meet  them  in  a  gen- 
eral way,  suggesting  rather  than  fully  developing  the  points 
of  my  reply. 

We  are  at  issue  on  the  question: — Is  the  impenitent  sin- 
ner's doom  eternal,  and  after  deaths  irreversible  f 

Inasmuch  as  Mr.  Farrar  does  not  argue  for  annihilation 
as  opposed  to  an  eternal  destiny,  but  lays  out  his  strength 
to  prove  the  one  point  of  future  reformation — "  Eternal 
Hope" — the  issue  may  be  reduced  to  this  unit.  I  shall 
treat  tliis  therefore  as  tlie  main  issue. 

Against  this  doctrine  of  an  eternal  and  irreversible  doom, 
Mr.  Farrar  assumes  and  asserts : 

1.  That  it  rests  on  insulated  Scripture  texts— few  in  number 
and  of  doiihffid  impoH. 

2.  That  it  is  not  sustained  hut  is  virtually  disproved  hij  the 
general  current  of  SGripture  teaching — the  proof  texts  for  its 


461 

support  being  wrested  from  their  context  and  thereby  misin- 
terpreted. 

3.  That  it  is  incoiisistent  ivith  the  infinite  love  of  God  toward 
his  moral  creatures. 

4.  That  it  is  condemned  a7id  therefore  precluded  by  the  voice 
of  human  reason  which  he  holds  to  be  essentially  the  voice  of 
God.  _     _  .        . 

Other  collateral  arguments,  incidental  to  these  main  points, 
may  receive  attention  in  the  sequel. 

1.  He  claims  that  it  rests  on  insulated  texts,  few  in  num- 
ber and  of  doubtful  import. 

These   texts  may  be  readily  classified,    for  they  treat — 

(a.)  Of  the  j9/ace  of  the  sinner's  doom  ; (6.)  Of  the  nature 

of  his  sufferings; (c.)  Of  iheix  duration. 

(a.)  His  criticisms  upon  the  scriptural  terms  for  the 
flace — Sheol;  Hades;  Gehenna;  hell,  etc.,  are  of  far  less 
real  value  than  he  seems  to  assume.  What  if  the  Scriptures 
had  given  no  name  whatever  to  the  place  of  the  sinner's 
doom  ?  This  would  not  affect  its  certainty  or  its  fearfulness 
in  the  least.  Jesus  describes  it  (Matt.  25:  41):  "Depart, 
ye  cursed,  into  everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and 
his  angels."     Here  is  no   name  of  place,  yet  what   words 

could  be  stronger  or  more  fearful  than  these  ? Sometimes 

he  said — "into  outer  darkness  where  shall  be  weeping  and 
gnashing  of  teeth"  (Matt.  8:  12  and  13:  42,  50  and  22: 
13).  What  would  it  avail  though  this  "outer  darkness" 
have  no  described  locality,  no  uniform  designation  by  name? 

So  the  sinner's  future  doom  as  given  by  the  Revelator 

John  depends  in  no  manner  whatever  upon  any  name  for 
its  place.  He  says — "  Shall  have  their  part  in  the  lake  that 
burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone"  (Rev.  21:  8);  but  mainly 
describes  them  as  "without"  [outside]  "  the  golden  city," 
forever  debarred — "  for  into  that  city  shall  in  nowise  enter 
any  thing  that  defileth,  nor  worketh  abomination;"  "with- 
out where  are  sorcerers,  whoremongers,  and  whosoever  lov- 
eth  and  maketh  a  lie"  (21:  27  and  22:  14,  15). 

]\Ii\  Farrar  seems  to  assume  that  there  can  be  nothing 
very  terrible  in  hell  because  the  original  words  Sheol  and 
Hades  are  sometimes  used  for  the  under-world,  with  no 
special  reference  to  its  being  a  state  of  suffering.  Also  that 
nothing  can  be  certainly  known  from  the  word  "  Gehenna" 
and  nothing  very  fearful  can  be  within  its  meaning  because 
originally  and  by  etymology,  it  was  the  beautiful  valley  of 
Hinnom,  south  of  Jerusalem.      Some  readers  may  not  be 


462  "eternal  hope." 

aware  that  this  once  beautiful  valley  became  desecrated  by 
the  burning  of  children  there  in  honor  of  Moloch;  that 
then,  as  an  antidote  to  its  idolatrous  associations,  Josiah 
defiled  it  with  all  the  sewerage  of  the  city — dead  carcasses, 
and  all  most  filthy  things,  and  kept  up  a  perpetual  fire 
whose  ascending  smoke,  coupled  with  those  reeking  abomina- 
tions, became  a  symbol  for  the  place  and  the  doom  of  lost 
souls. Now  it  is  idle  to  object  that  a  name  which  sug- 
gests foulness  and  all  abominations,  coupled  with  perpetual 
burnings,  "  where  their  worm  dieth  not  and  the  fire  is  never 
quenched" — "an  abhorring  unto  all  the  living"  (Isa.  66: 
24) — moreover,  lying  outside  the  peace,  purity  and  joy  of 
the  holy  city — is  not  the  right  sort  of  word  for  the  place  of 
the  sinner's  final  punishment.  Or  to  put  my  point  in  a 
more  general  form,  it  indicates  any  thing  else  rather  than 
candor  and  good  sense  to  assume  that  the  name  or  names 
for  the  place  and  state  of  the  lost,  must  have  no  roots  in  the 
material  things  of  the  present  world.  A  word  which  should 
have  no  such  roots  would  be  a  word  with  no  imbedded 
thought  or  suggestive  force  in  it,  and  Canon  Farrar  would 
then  object  that  it  meant  nothing. 

In  usage  this  word,  "Gehenna,"  is  almost  peculiar  to 
our  Lord — used  by  him  chiefly.  With  but  a  single  exception 
(James  3  :  6)  it  is  used  by  him  only.  Of  the  recorded  cases 
Matthew  has  seven  (including  10:  28  and  18:  9  and  23: 
33)  ;  Mark  has  three  (9 :  43,  45,  47)  ;  and  Luke  one  (12 : 

^)-  .      . 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  certainty  and  fearfulness  of 

the  sinner's  future  doom  are  in  no  degree  weakened  in  force 

by  small  criticisms  upon  the  names  given  in  some  passages 

to  its  locality. 

(b.)  As  to  the  nature  of  his  sufferings. 

Canon  Farrar  is  horrified  at  the  idea  that  physical  sufier- 
ing  should  be  any  part  of  the  doom  of  the  lost. For  pur- 
poses of  rhetoric  merely  (apart  from  all  logic),  this  view  of 
the  sinner's  punishment  may  enlist  sympathy  in  his  behalf 
and  odium  against  the  righteous  government  that  punishes. 
But  at  bottom  the  real  argument,  if  it  have  any  logical 
fi)rce,  must  assume  either  (1)  That  God  has  no  right  to  pun- 
ish sinners  at  all ;  or  (2)  No  right  to  inflict  suffering  which 
shall  be  seen  to  come  from  his  hand  and  to  signify  his  dis- 
pleasure against  sin,  and  thns  be  something  else  besides  the 

inevitable   reaction   of  sin   upon  the  sinner  himself It 

would  be  candid  in  Mr.  Farrar  to  meet  the  issue  on  one  or 


463 

both  of  these  points.  Certainly  he  might  have  spared  his 
rhetoric  over  mere  bodily  suffering  ;  for  who  does  not  know 
that  ''the  spirit  of  a  man  can  sustain  his  [physical]  infirm- 
ity; but  a  wounded  spirit,  who  can  bear?" 

That  the  passages  which  speak  of  the  wicked  as  being  in 
fire  are  figurative,  metaphorical,  is  rendered  probable  by 
these  circumstances :  (a.)  That  the  destruction  of  Sodom  is 
in  various  passages,  apparently  the  illustrative  example; 
(b.)  That  other  figures  (e.  g.) — darkness,  expulsion  from  the 
feast,  banishment  from  the  heavenly  city — are  also  used  as 
well  as  fire. With  these  facts  we  may  couple  the  cer- 
tainty that  in  some  part  at  least,  sin  will  beget  its  own  tor- 
ment; for  the  spirit  of  hate  and  selfishness  is  essentially 
self-torturing.  Developed  socially,  it  must  forever  react  (as 
we  see  it  here)  in  sharp  resistance,  responsive  hatred  and 
more  intensified  selfishness:  while  as  developed  toward  God, 
who  can  measure  the  horrors  of  conscious  guilt  and  remorse; 
the  sense  of  ineffable  folly,  shame  and  self-condemnation  for 
having  committed  one's  self  to  mad  and  vain  rebellion 
against  infinite  Power  and  infinite  Love ! 

(c.)    Of  their  duration. 

Finite  human  thought  has  two  methods  of  conceiving  and 
expressing  extreme  duration;  viz.:  (a.)  By  comparison  with 
things  most  permanent — of  longest  known  continuance  ;  (6.) 
By  denying  to  it  any  possible  termination.  Under  the 
former  we  have  *'ages  upon  ages,"  world -existences,  accu- 
mulated indefinitely.  We  have  also  comparisons  with 
things  that  lapse  of  time  is  never  known  to  impair;  e.  g., 
the  everlasting  mountains ;  the  ever-enduring  sun  and  moon. 

(b.)  More  satisfactory  to  the  mind  and  therefore  very  com- 
mon is  the  denial  of  any  end  ;— endless;  ages  without  end. 

Mr.  Farrar  rests  his  denial  of  endless  punishment  upon 

the  assumed  weakness  of  the  first  above  named  mode  of  con- 
ception and  statement.  I  recall  no  notice  of  the  second  mode 
in  his  volume.  [The  reader  is  left  to  judge  for  himself  of 
the  reasons  for  this  omission.] 

The  testimony  in  the  word  "  aionios"  receives  large  atten- 
tion. He  insists  that  it  means,  not  everlasting  but  only  age- 
long, which  must  be  always  limited,  and  may  be  relatively  a 
short  duration.  On  this  point  there  is  very  little  occasion 
to  follow  him  with  counter-criticism  and  refutation. — ^-The 
great  facts  bearing  on  the  question — which  he  ought  not  to 
but  does  mostly  or  quite  ignore — are  such  as  these:  (a.) 
Aionios  and  its  cognates  in  common  usage  denote  the  longest 


464 

duration  possible  to  the  case — a  duration  which  men  think  of 
as  unending ;  e.  g.,  aionian  to  a  shive  is  life-long,  for  it  can 
not  possibly  be  longer ; — to  mountains  is  world-long — while 
the  world  stands,  and  said  with  no  thought  of  the  world's 
coming  to  an  end.  On  this  principle  of  usage,  said  of  pun- 
ishment, its  duration  is  measured  by  that  of  the  government 
which  punishes — of  the  throne  against  which  the  imprisoned 
sufferer  is  in  rebellion. 

(h.)  The  aionian  punishment  of  the  wicked  is  compared 
and  contrasted  with  the  aionian  blessedness  of  the  righteous. 
In  the  same  breath  spoken,  in  the  same  connection,  in  the 
same  grammatical  construction — the  same  word,  by  all  just 
laws  of  interpretation,  should  have  the  same  meaning — 
should  signify  the  same  duration.  This  point  of  the  argu- 
ment applies  (as  is  well  known)  to  Matt.  25 :  46  ; — the  words 
of  our  Lord  himself:  *'  These  into  everlasting  punishment; 
those  into  everlasting  life." 

(c.)  The  great  question  on  the  Greek  words  for  eternal  (the 
noun  aion  and  the  adjective  aionios)  is  one  of  usage,  and 
especially  of  New  Testament  usage.  The  only  satisfactory 
and  right  way  of  settling  such  a  question  is  to  examine,  clas- 
sify and  count  the  actual  cases  of  usage,  and  thus  decide  on 
the  basis  of  fact  how  the  New  Testament  writers  really  em- 
ploy this  class  of  words. 

Employed  to  signify  duration  we  find  both  the  noun  aion 
(commonly  with  its  preposition  eis  [unto] — unto  eternity) 
and  the  adjective  aionios  (eternal). 

The  cases  of  usage  fall  naturally  into  three  classes;  (1)  as 
applied  to  the  existence,  attributes,  glory  of  God;  (2)  ai)plied 
to  the  destiny  of  the  righteous ;  (3)  ap2)lied  to  the  destiny 
of  the  wicked. 

The  count  of  cases  of  usage  in  this  classification  show  that 
the  noun  aion  (n)  is  applied  to  God  tJiirty-six  times;  (b)  to  the 
destiny  of  the  righteous  nine  times ;  (c)  to  the  destiny  of  the 
^\lckc(\five  times. 

That  the  adjective  "aionios"  (a)  is  applied  to  God  five 
times;  (b)  to  the  destiny  of  the  righteous  fifty-six  times;  (c) 
to  the  destiny  of  the  wicked  seven  times.* 

*  The  cases  are  as  follows  : 

I.  Of  aion.  (a).  Applied  to  God  ;  Matt.  0  :  13;  Luke  1  :  33;  Acts 
15  :  rS;  Kom.  1  :  25  and  9 :  5  and  11  :  30  and  1(5 :  27 ;  2  Cor.  9  :  9 
and  11  :  31  ;  Gal.  1:5;  Eph.  3:  21  ;  Phil.  4:  20;  1  Tim.  1  :  17; 
2  Tim.  4  :  18;  Ilch.  1  :  8  and  5  :  G  and  0  :  20  and  7:  17,  21,  24,  28; 
1  Pet.  1  :  23,  25  and  4:  11  and  5  :  11  and  2  Pet.  3:  18;  Kev.  1  :  6, 


465 

Now  with  these  facts  before  us,  it  behooves  us  to  move 
cautiously,  reverently,  and  very  honestly  in  any  attempt  to 
break  the  force  of  this  class  of  words,  used  for  the  duration 
of  the  sinner's  doom. 

But  high  abov^e  all  other  considerations  and  proofs  for  the 
strict  eternity  of  the  sinner's  doom  stand  the  testimonies 
lying  in  the  second  line  of  conception  and  statement,  above 
alluded  to,  viz.,  those  which  explicitly  deny  all  termination 
to  his  state — all  possible  change  in  his  doom  from  death  to 
life:  "He  that  belie veth  not  the  Son  slmll  not  see  life,  but 
the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him"  (John  3:  36).  "I  say 
unto  you  that  none  of  those  men  that  were  bidden  [and 
would  not  come]  shall  taste  of  my  supper"  (Luke  11  :  24). 
"  Neither  can  they  pass  to  us  that  would  come  from  thence" 
(Luke  16:  26). 

On  this  point  the  Old  Testament  is  by  no  means  silent: 
*'He  that,  being  often  reproved,  hardeneth  his  neck,  shall 
suddenly  be  destroyed  and  that  ivithout  remedy"  (Prov.  29  :  1). 
"The  wicked  is  driven  away  in  his  wickedness,  but  the  right- 
eous hath  hope  in  his  death"  (Prov.  14 :  32). 

All  termination  is  denied  with  similar  force  when  the  words 
speak  of  the  agencies  and  means  of  their  punishment; 
e.  g.,  **  The  fire  that  never  shall  be  quenched";  "  where  their 
worm  dieth  not"  (Mark  9:  43-48).  It  is  a  weak  argument 
that  concedes  an  eternal  prison  and  everlasting  burnings, 

18  and  4:9,  11  and  5  :  13,  14  and  10:  6  and  7  :  12  and  11  :  15 

and  15 :  7. 

(6.)  Aion  used  for  the  duration  of  the  destiny  of  the  righteous : 
John  4:  14  and  6  :  51,  58  and  8  :  51,  52  and  10  :  28  and  11 :  26;  1 
John  2:  17;  Rev.  22 :  5. 

(c.)  Aion  used  for  the  duration  of  the  destinv  of  the  wicked  :  2 
Pet.  2  :  17  and  Jude  13 ;  Rev.  14  :  11  and  19  :  3  aiid  20  :  11— the  last 
of  Satan  and  his  angels;  but  compare  Matt.  25  :  41. 

II.  Aionios:  (a).  Used  of  the  existence,  attributes  and  glory  of 
God ;— Rom.  16  :  26  ;  1  Tim.  6  :  16  and  Heb.  9  :  14 ;  1  John  1 :  2 
and  5 :  20. 

(6.)  Of  the  blessedness  of  the  righteous  :  Matt.  19  :  16,  29  and 
25  :  46;  Mark  10:  17  ;  John  4  :  14;  Mark  10:  30  and  Luke  18  :  30 
and  10  :  25  and  18  :  18  and  16:9;  John  3  :  15, 16,  36  and  5  :  24,  39 
and  4 :  36  and  6 :  27,  40,  47,  54,  68  and  10 :  28  and  12 :  25,  50  and 
17  :  2,  3 ;  Acts  13 :  46,  48 ;  Rom.  2  :  7  and  5 :  21  and  6  :  22,  23  ;  1 
Tim.  1 :  16  ;  2  Cor.  4 :  17,  18  and  5:1;  Gal.  6  :  8  ;  2  Thess.  2:16; 
1  Tim.  6:  12,  19;  Titus  1 :  2  and  2:  10  and  3:  7;  Philemon  15; 
Heb.  5:  9  and  9:  12,  15  and  13:  20;  1  Peter  5:  10  and  2  Peter 
1  :  11  ;  1  John  2 :  25  and  3 :  15  and  5  :  11,  13 ;  Jude  21  ;  Rev.  14 :  6. 

(c).  Of  the  destiny  of  the  wicked  :— Matt.  18  :  8  and  25  :  41,  46  ; 
Mark  3:  29  ;  2  Thess.  1:9;   Heb.  6:2;   Jude  7. 


466 

but  denies  eternal  imprisonment  and  endless  suffering  to  any 
sinner.  The  supposition  that  the  prison-house  stands  eter- 
nally empty  and  that  its  darkness  shuts  around  nothing,  is 
little  better  than  an  insult  to  the  common  sense  of  mankind. 

What  more  need  be  said  or  well  could  be  to  put  this  point 
of  eternal  duration  beyond  all  question  ? 

Mr.  Farrar  seems  to  make  great  account  of  his  point  that 
the  passages  which  affirm  the  sinner's  doom  are  few  in  num- 
ber.  We  might  answer — What,  then?    Suppose  they  are. 

How  many  times  must  the  Supreme  Ruler  affirm  it  to  make 
it  valid  ?  How  many  repetitions  of  human  law  making  mur- 
der punishable  with  death  are  necessary  to  justify  the  court 
in  passing  sentence?  Really,  is  not  this  objection  a  petty 
trifling  w^ith  the  word  of  God  ? He  admits  that  the  synop- 
tical gospels  (the  first  three)  have  a  few  rather  strong  sayings 
— in  speaking  of  which,  however,  he  scarcely  notices  that  those 
most  fearful  words  are  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  iiimself.  But 
when  he  comes  to  John's  gospel,  the  darkness  is  lifted ;  almost 
every  thing  is  light ;  John  scarcely  speaks  of  hell  at  all — in 
all  which  he  quietly  ignores  these  circumstances;  (a.)  That 
John  purposely  supplements  the  first  three  gospels,  omitting 
for  the  most  part  what  they  have  fully  recorded;  and  (b.)  That 
his  avowed  purpose  to  write  up  the  testimony  to  the  Messiah- 
ship  of  Jesus  (John  20:  31)  led  him  to  other  themes. In 

the  same  line  of  argument  he  intimates  that  Paul  and  the 
other  apostles  say  but  little  about  hell,  he  carefully  overlook- 
ing the  circumstance  that  their  epistles  were  all  addressed  to 
Christians ;  not  to  godless  sinners ;  and  that  consequently, 
allusion  to  the  doom  of  the  wicked  is  incidental,  and  there- 
fore comparatively  seldom.  He  might,  however,  have  found 
something  on  this  subject  in  the  Revelation  of  John.  But 
really  this  sort  of  argument  lacks  dignity  and  due  respect, 
not  only  to  the  Scriptures  in  general,  but  in  particular,  to  the 
testimony  of  Jesus.  Is  it  really  of  so  little  account,  that 
Jesus,  the  Son  of  God,  has  spoken  on  this  momentous,  this 
awful  subject,  so  solemnly,  so  fully,  with  such  surpassing 
clearness  and  emphasis? 

II.  The  common  doctrine,  Mr.  F.  claims,  is  not  sustained 
but  is  virtually  disproved  by  the  general  current  of  Scriiiture 
teaching,  the  -proof-texts  for  its  support  being  wrested  from  their 
context,  and  thns  idterly  misinterpreted.  Tliis  objection  is  ])ut 
in  the  strongest  manner  possible  to  his  rhetoric — one  might 
say  the  boldest  and  strongest  possible  to  the  English  tongue. 
In  the  passage  quoted  above,  he  puts  among  the  first  things 


"eternal  hope."  467 

he  would  have  done,  these :  ^'  Judge  the  words  of  our  blessed 
Lord  by  the  most  ordinary  rules  of  honest  and  unprejudiced 
interpretation,"  etc.  (Preface,  p.  26.) — In  his  central  sermon 
on  "Hell — what  it  is  not,"  he  says:  "Those  texts"  [on 
which  the  common  doctrine  rests]  "are,  in  the  first  place, 
alien  to  the  broad  unifying  principle  of  Scripture ;  also,  are 
founded  on  interpretations  which  have  appeared  to  many 
wise  men  to  be  demonstratively  groundless;  that  for  every 
one  so  quoted,  two  can  be  adduced  whose  prima  facie  and 
literal  ititerpretation  tells  on  the  other  side."  He  adduces 
what  he  calls  "an  old,  sensibly  admitted  rule  of  interpreta- 
tion"— that  "phrases  which  belong  to  metaphor,  to  imagery, 
to  poetry,  to  emotion,  are  not  to  be  formulated  into  neces- 
sary dogma  or  crystallized  into  rigid  creed.  Tested  by  this 
rule,  nine-tenths  of  the  phrases  on  W'hich  these  views  are 
built  fall  utterly  to  the  ground." — "I  protest  at  once  and 
finally  against  this  ignorant  tyranny  of  isolated  texts  which 
has  ever  been  the  curse  of  Christian  truth,  the  glory  of  nar- 
row intellects,  and  the  cause  of  the  worst  errors  of  the  worst 

days  of  the  corrupted  church." Sometimes   he   speaks 

words  of  real  and  precious  truth,  only  they  are  entirely  in- 
apphcable  to  his  purpose — e.  ^.,  "  our  guide  is  the  scriptures 
of  God  in  their  broad  outlines ;  the  revelation  of  God  in  its 
glorious  unity ;  the  books  of  God  in  their  eternal  simplicity, 
read  by  the  illumination  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  which  dwelleth 
in  us  except  we  be  reprobates.  Our  guide  is  not  and  never 
shall  be  what  the  Scripture  calls  *  the  letter  that  killeth,'  the 
tyrannous  realism  of  ambiguous  metaphor,  the  asserted  infal- 
libility of  isolated  Avords."  Also  this :  "  You  must  take  words 
and  interpret  words  in  their  proper  and  historical  significance, 
not  in  that  sense  which  makes  them  connote  to  you  a  thou- 
sand notions  which  did  not  originally  belong  to  them." 

This  is  very  sensible,  sustaining  mightily  the  doctrine  he  im- 
pugns ;  demolishing  the  doctrine  he  would  build  up. 

Summing  up  his  strong  points  (pp.  205,  206),  he  speaks 
of  "the  constant  perversion  of  Scripture  by  the  attempt  to 
build  up  infinite  systems  out  of  metaphorical  expressions  and 
isolated  texts.  I  have  said  we  must  be  guided,  not  by  texts 
torn  from  their  context,  but  by  the  whole  tenor  and  scope 
of  revelation." — "I  care  but  little  in  any  controversy  for  the 
stress  laid  on  one  or  two  isolated  and  dubious  texts  out  of 
the  sacred  literature  of  fifteen  hundred  years.  They  may  be 
torn  from  their  context;  they  may  be  distorted;  they  may 
be  irrelevant." 


468 

The  principles  of  interpretation  here  hiid  down  or  assumed 
are  partly  true  and  partly  not  true.  His  application  of  them 
is,  in  my  view,  utterly  unfounded  and  misleading. — As  made 
against  the  views  and  the  men  he  opposes,  they  are  entirely 
gratuitous.  As  bearing  upon  his  own  staple  argument,  they 
are  (logically  considered)  very  unfortunate  and  even  fatal  to 
his  cause.  For  the  texts  on  which  the  common  view  rests, 
so  far  from  being  torn  from  and  forced  against  their  con- 
text, derive  their  full  and  fe  rful  power  from  their  context. 
It  is  precisely  by  virtue  of  their  context  that  they  are  strong, 
invincible,  impregnable.  No  reader  ever  feels  their  full, 
tremendous  force  till  he  studies  and  estimates  them  in  the 
light  of  their  connection.  The  power  of  those  momentous 
words,  "These  shall  go  away  into  everlasting  punishment; 
])ut  the  righteous  into  everlasting  life,"  turns  on  the  facts 
of  the  context — the  facts,  namely,  that  they  come  by  antici- 
pation from  the  lips  of  the  Great  Judge  himself,  who  of  all 
beings  in  the  universe  should  be  presumed  to  know;  that 
they  are  precisely  the  final  sentence,  to  be  passed  when  *'the 
dead,  small  and  great,  shall  stand  before  God;"  ''when  the 
Son  of  man  shall  come  in  his  glory,  and  before  him  shall  be 
gathered  all  nations;"  when  for  cause  fully  assigned,  the 
wicked  shall  have  heard  their  final  sentence:  "Depart  ac- 
cursed into  everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his 
angels ;" — and,  to  go  back  yet  further,  in  a  connection  which 
sets  forth,  by  one  parable,  that  neglect  of  opportunities  is 
fatal,  and  by  another,  that  men,  bearing  great  trusts  but 
guiltily  failing  to  meet  them,  are  therefore  doomed  as  un- 
profitable servants  to  the  destiny  of  outer  darkness,  where 
shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth."  Thus  the  ground 
ideas  of  the  final  judgment  are  illustrated  in  the  foregoing 
context.  Now  to  claim  that  the  closing  words  of  this  judg- 
ment scene  are  isolated,  torn  out  from  their  connect  on,  and 
therefore  wrested  from  their  true  sense  by  misinterpretation, 
may,  perhaps,  have  weight  with  those  who  have  never  read 
the  passage.  How  it  can  have  force  with  those  who  have 
read  it  surpasses  my  conception. 

Again,  there  is  a  group  of  parables  in  INIatt.  13 :  24-50, 
various  in  imagery  but  one  in  thought,  culminating  in  the 
momentous  issues  of  final  destiny:  "So  shall  it  be  at  the 
end  of  the  world :  The  Son  of  man  shall  send  forth  his  an- 
gels, and  they  shall  gather  out  of  liis  kingdom  all  things 
that  ollend  and  them  which  do  inicpiity,  and  shall  cast  them 
into  a  furnace  of  fire  ;  there  shall  be  wailing  and  gnashing 


469 

of  teeth." — Are  these  parables  altogether  irrelevant  to  the 
fiual  destiny  of  our  race?  Is  it  wresting  them  from  their 
context,  divorcing  them  from  their  declared  purpose,  to 
apply  them  to  the  scenes  and  results  of  the  last  judgment  ? 
Can  it  be  claimed  with  any  force  of  reason  that  these  clear 
and  cogent  representations  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  moral 
kingdom  of  God  in  our  world?  Observe  that  Jesus  intro- 
duces them  by  saying,  ''The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  the 
man  sowing  good  seed ;"  is  like  the  net  cast  into  the  sea  and 
gathering  good  and  bad.  Will  it  be  claimed  that  Jesus  had 
no  right  to  teach,  or  even  attempt  to  teach,  the  facts  of  his 
moral  kingdom,  including  the  final  destiny  of  the  human 
race,  by  means  of  parables  ?  It  is  pretended  that  parables 
have  no  reliable  significance,  and  that  Christ  must  have  been 
too  wise  to  teach  the  final  issues  of  his  moral  kingdom  by 
means  of  such  illustrations!  It  may  be  convenient  for 
Canon  Farrar  quietly  to  assume  this  and  to  ignore  all  the 
evidence  they  embody ;  but  would  it  be  prudent  for  him  to 
formulate  and  father  this  objection,  upon  which  really  most 
of  his  strong  rhetoric  is  built  ?  For  who  does  not  know  that 
the  true  sense  of  Christ's  parables  is  indefinitely  more  sure 
than  the  significance  of  any  single  word  can  be,  and  far  less 
liable  to  fluctuation  under  the  lapse  of  time  and  the  influ- 
ences which  modify  language?  Let  the  man  who  would 
impeach  the  wisdom  of  Jesus  in  his  abundant  use  of  para- 
bles stand  forth  before  earth  and  heaven  to  sustain  the  im- 
peachment ! 

Out  of  our  Lord's  numerous  parables,  Luke  has  preserved 
to  us  several,  the  points  of  which  are  put  with  matchless 
suggestiveness  and  force;  e.  g.,  that  which  opens — "Strive" 
[unto  agony]  "to  enter  the  narrow  gate;  for  many,  I  say 
unto  you,  will  (hereafter)  seek  to  enter  in,  and  shall  not  be 
able."  Why  unable?  He  proceeds  to  give  prospectively 
and  as  to  form,  dramatically,  their  efforts  and  negotiations 
to  gain  admission:  "When  once  the  master  of  the  house  is 
risen  up  and  hath  shut  to  the  door,  and  ye  begin  to  stand 
without,  and  to  knock  at  the  door,  saying,  Lord,  Lord, 
open  to  us ;  and  he  shall  answer  and  say,  I  know  you  hot 
whence  ye  are ;" — and  they,  still  pressing  their  suit,  shall 
plead — "We  have  eaten  and  drunk  in  thy  presence,  and 
thou  hast  taught  in  our  streets;"  and  he  shall  reply — "I 
tell  you,  I  know  you  not  whence  ye  are ;  depart  from  me, 
all  ye  workers  of  iniquity;"  "there  shall  be  weeping  and 
gnashing  of  teeth  when  ye  shall  see  Abraham  and  all  the 


470  "eternal  hope." 

prophets  in  the  kingdom  of  God  and  ye  yourselves  thrust 
out."  Is  there  any  hick  of  definite  significance  in  this 
showing?  Or  will  it  be  said  that  in  applying  this  illustra- 
tion to  prove  that  the  destiny  of  the  lost  is  hopeless,  we  tear 
it  from  its  context?  Ah,  but  the  context  clinches  its  ap- 
pKcation  to  this  very  case.  This  whole  showing  is  here  at 
all  only  because  a  bystander  inquired:  "Lord,  are  there 
few  that  be  saved?"  And  Jesus  replied — in  substance — 
Suppress  all  idle  curiosity  and  struggle  for  the  life  of 
your  soul  to  gain  the  narrow  entrance  ;  for  I  tell  you,  many 
will  be  too  careless  to  succeed ;  and  many  w^ll  deceive  them- 
selves with  hopes  that  must  end  in  awful  disappointment. 
"When  once  the  master  of  the  house  is  risen  up  and  hath 
shut  the  door,  the  workers  of  iniquity  will  press  their  plea 
for  admission,  forever  in  vain."  For  let  the  reader  notice 
that  this  shutting  of  the  door  is  not  presented  here  as  a 
trivial  and  merely  incidental  circumstance.  Observe,  Christ 
does  not  say,  after  the  door  has  been  shut ;  nor  after  the 
servant  shall  have  shut  it;  but  after  the  master  of  the 
house  has  risen  up  in  his  supreme  authority  and  majesty,  and 
has  closed  the  door  with  his  own  determined,  resistless  hand. 
This  form  of  statement  gives  tremendous  emphasis  to  the 
transaction.  Let  no  man  rashly  assume  that  this  door  will 
fly  open  again  very  readily  as  if  its  being  shut  had  no  special 
significance! 

We  have  another  supposed  case  built  on  an  Oriental  cus- 
tom common  in  the  Koman  world  of  the  Christian  age — a 
great  supper;  many  guests  invited;  of  whom  not  a  few,  for 
frivolous,  not  to  say  insulting  reasons,  would  not  come.  The 
Lord  of  the  feast,  in  great  displeasure,  bids  his  servants  call 
in  the  poor,  and  the  men  of  the  highways ;  but  solemnly 
declares  of  those  who  had  scornfully  refused  his  call — Not 
a  man  of  them  shall  taste  of  my  supper! Now  it  is  cer- 
tainly legitimate  to  look  here  for  Christ's  answer  to  our  great 
question — whether  refusing  to  obey  the  gospel  call  becomes 
a  finality;  carries  with  it  a  hopeless  loss — a  rejection  by  the 
Great  Master  of  the  gospel  feast  which  can  never  be  re- 
versed? The  ministers  of  Christ's  gospel  have  been  wont  to 
utilize  this  parable  for  warning  to  sinners  to  listen  to  love's 
call  while  it  is  yet  to-day.  So  doing,  have  they  torn  the 
passage  out  of  its  context?  Have  they  laid  themselves  o})en 
to  the  scathing  rebuke  of  Canon  Farrar  for  misinterpreting 
their  Master's  words?  They  will  answer: — We  carefully 
studied  the  context.      We  found  the  parable  suggested  by 


471 

the  casual  remark  of  a  bystander: — "Blessed  is  he  that 
shall  eat  bread  in  the  kingdom  of  God."  This,  then,  is  the 
starting  point  of  the  parable — the  blessedness  of  sitting 
round  the  heavenly  board ;  and  the  wretchedness  of  final, 
everlasting  failure.  Therefore  we  can  not  be  mistaken  ;  Jesus 
certainly  meant  to  show  that  sinful  men  have  opportunities 
now  which  must  soon  pass  away  forever.  Noiu  they  are  in- 
vited— invited  warmly,  generously,  sincerely ;  but  persistent 
neglect,  abuse,  contemptuous  refusal,  will  prove  fatal.  The 
Master  does  not  say — they  must  be  shut  out  during  a  certain 
indefinite,  aionian  period,  after  which  they  will  be  again  wel- 
come to  enter ;  but  he  says — Not  one  of  those  men  shall 
taste  of  my  supper!     The  exclusion  is  absolute  and  final. 

The  main  points  in  the  case  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus 
(Luke  16:  19-31)  are  made  too  plain  to  be  innocently  mis- 
understood. Readers  of  ordinary  discernment  and  honest 
mind  always  see  that  the  rich  man  died  and  then  went  into 
a  state  of  misery — a  state  of  enforced  seclusion  from  the 
world  of  the  blessed — a  state  where  every  prayer  is  unavail- 
ing— a  state  from  which  escape  is  hopeless,  and  transition 
to  the  better  world  utterly  impossible.  A  large  portion  of 
the  candid  readers  of  this  passage  have  believed  in  its  ap- 
plication to  the  doom  of  the  wicked  after  death.  Canon 
Farrar  arraigns  them  upon  the  charge  of  wresting  the  pas- 
sage out  of  its  context,  and  so  perverting  its  purposed  sig- 
nificance. Is  this  arraignment  legitimate  ?  Not  at  all.  For 
it  is  precisely  the  context  which  determines  beyond  all  dis- 
pute the  application  of  this  case  to  the  sinner's  final  doom. 
Jesus  had  been  pressing  rich  men  to  use  their  riches  so  as 
to  make  friends  in  heaven  to  welcome  them  there  at  death. 
The  covetous  Pharisees — money-loving  and  money-hoarding 
— laughed  him  to  scorn  for  such  teaching.  "  They  derided 
him."  Their  tight  fingers  should  never  relax  their  grasp 
upon  "worldly  treasure  for  such  a  reason !  Their  folly  and 
their  scorn  seem  to  have  moved  the  heart  of  the  Master  to 
a  deep  solemnity,  and  to  this  plain,  faithful,  fearful  showing 
of  the  future  doom  of  the  rich  man  whose  hard  soul  never 

felt  compassion  for  the  sufferers  at  his  door. Thus  the 

context  demonstrates  the  application  and  intensifies  the  sig- 
nificance of  this  momentous  passage.  The  reader  who 
misses  the  context  misses  much  of  the  thrilling  power  and 
much  of  the  sense  of  awful  certainty  which  lies  in  these 
words. 

These  features  in  Christ's  parables  seemed  to  justify  the 


472 

remark  made  above  that  Canon  Farrar's  arraignment  of  the 
common  doctrine  as  tearing  its  proof-texts  out  of  their  con- 
text is  (logically  considered)  very  unfortunate  and  even  fatal 
for  his  cause.  If  this  arraignment  should  lead  Bible  students 
to  search  out  the  context  of  these  passages,  his  arguments 
would  need  no  further  refutation. 

Unfortunately  for  Canon  Farrar's  candor,  or  logical  power, 
or  exegetical  science,  he  grossly  violates  his  own  principles 
of  interpretation.  Such  wresting  of  scripture  from  its  con- 
text ;  such  construction  put  upon  it  in  utter  disregard  of  its 
original  intent  and  real  sense,  we  must  needs  go  far  to  find 
in  the  ranks  of  professed  Bible  critics.  For  example  :  To 
disprove  eternal  punishment  and  to  prove  '' Eternal  Hope," 
he  quotes  Rev.  21 :  4,  5  and  22:  3 :  "  God  shall  wipe  away 
all  tears  from  their  eyes;  and  there  shall  be  no  more  death, 
neither  sorrow  nor  crying  ;  neither  shall  there  be  any  more 

pain;   for  the  former  things  are  passed  away." "And 

there  shall  be  no  more  curse." Thus  what  God  said  of 

the  righteous  and  of  the  righteous  only — of  heaven  and  of 
heaven  only — he  applies  to  the  wicked.  Is  not  this  a  fla- 
grant wresting  of  scripture?     What  could  be  worse? 

Again,  he  finds  it  written  in  scripture:  "For  I  will  not 
contend  forever,  neither  will  I  be  always  wroth;  for  the 
spirit  should  fail  before  me,  and  the  souls  which  I  have 
made."  (Isaiah  57:  16.)  Therefore  he  infers  that  God's 
wrath  against  lost  sinners  will  not  be  eternal.  What  God's 
servants  spake  of  the  brief  disciplinary  sufl?erings  of  his  peo- 
ple in  time.  Canon  Farrar  assumes  to  be  legitimately  appli- 
cable to  the  retributions  of  the  incorrigibly  wicked  which 
God  affirms  to  be  eternal. 

Canon  Farrar  has  the  faculty  of  reading  his  doctrine  of 
"  Eternal  Hope "  into  almost  everything  he  finds  in  the 
Bible.  He  says — "  To  adduce  all  the  passages  which  deepen  in 
my  mind  the  trust  in  "Eternal  Hope"  would  be  to  tran- 
scribe one-half  of  the  Scriptures."  His  book  closes  with  a 
group  of  these  proof  texts  (some  six  pages — 219-224). 
Some  of  these  are  simply  prophetic  of  the  ultimate  ascend- 
ency of  Christ's  gospel  reign  upon  thisearth — the  millennium; 
some  speak  of  God's  agencies  in  his  earthly  providences  to- 
ward his  people  for  discipline  and  correction;  e.  g.,  Psalms 
103  :  9:  "  He  will  not  always  chide,  nor  keep  his  anger  for- 
ever;" and  Mic.  7:  18:  "He  retaineth  not  his  anger  for- 
ever because  he  delightcth  in  mercy."  Some  teach  unlimited 
as  opposed  to  limited  atonement;  c.  g.,  John  1:  29  and  3: 


473 

17  and  1  John  2:  2.  Others,  what  is  called  the  "restitu- 
tion of  all  things "  spoken  of  by  the  prophets,  etc.  (Acts 
3:  21);  yet  others,  Christ's  ultimate  supremacy  and  the 
subjugation  of  all  things  under  him,  as  Pliil.  2:  10,  11,  etc. 

It  can  not  be  necessary  to  expose  the  perversion  of  such 
passages  when  they  are  applied  to  the  final  doom  of  the  lost. 

III.  We  come  to  the  third  staple  objection,  viz.,  that  it  is 
inco7isistent  with  God's  infinite  love  for  his  creatures. 

I  approach  this  subject,  oppressed  with  a  sense  of  its  mag- 
nitude, and  awed  with  the  feeling  of  reverence  which  my 
reason  tells  me  it  should  inspire. 

Compelled  to  the  utmost  brevity,  I  must  for  the  most  part 
leave  the  reader  to  expand  and  apply  the  points  I  suggest. 

1.  There  is  no  issue  over  the  fact  of  God's  infinite  love 
for  his  creatures.  The  issue  made  respects  only  the  bearings 
of  this  fact  upon  the  punishment  of  sin. 

2.  On  this  point  it  becomes  us  to  inquire  and  judge  mod- 
estly and  humbly,  under  a  sense  that  God  is  wiser  and  bet- 
ter than  man;  that  nothing  is  deep  beyond  his  knowledge; 
that  nothing  in  human  character  or  conduct  is  too  intricate 
for  his  just  and  wise  decision. 

3.  For  these  reasons  it  is  safer  for  us  to  learn  what  we 
can  from  his  known  agencies  in  providence  and  grace,  rather 
than  attempt  to  infer  what  he  ought  to  do  from  our  notion 
of  what  we  would  do  in  his  case.  Sometimes  men  are 
scarcely  aware  how  much  they  tacitly  assume  that  God 
ought  to  do  what  they  think  they  would  do  in  like  circum- 
stances— which  virtually  assumes  that  man  can  judge  as  well 
as  God  can,  or  better. 

4.  Studying  God's  actual  ways,  we  meet  first  of  all  this 
remarkable  fact — that  he  manifestly  works  against  sin, 
rather  than  against  suflfering.  He  seems  to  hate  sin  far 
more  than  he  recoils  from  sutiTering.  He  manifestly  cares 
more  to  save  from  sin  than  to  save  from  suflfering.  Or,  to 
put  this  in  yet  other  form,  he  cares  more  to  make  human 
life  pure  than  painless ;  works  rather  to  make  good  charac- 
ter than  to  make  sound,  unsuffering  bodies.  All  which 
amounts  to  saying  that  he  aims  and  works  toward  the  greater 
good  rather  than  the  less;  and  for  this  should  have  the 
credit  of  both  wisdom  and  love. 

Now  this  is  one  of  the  great  points  in  which  his  estimate 
of  values  (valuable  things)  diflTers  radically,  almost  totally, 
from  that  of  men.  For  men  are  wont  to  have  indefinitely 
more  repugnance  to   suflTering  than  to  sin;  to  work  rather 


474  "eternal,  hope." 

against  suffering  than  against  sin  ;  to  study  and  seek  pres- 
ent pleasure  more  than  present  virtue.  Alas !  what  thou- 
sands of  our  race — fathers,  mothers,  magistrates — forget,  that 
the  softness  of  sensibility  which  can  not  endure  to  inflict 
pain  for  the  sake  of  moral  purity  and  more  noble  character, 
is  a  weakness,  and  is  not  either  wisdom  or  love.  Let  us 
adore  the  Infinite  Father  that  He  is  above  making  this  ruin- 
ous mistake  in  the  training  of  his  moral  children ;  that  He 
never  can  sink  into  this  infinite  folly ! 

5.  Men  sometimes  forget  (what  God  never  forgets) — that 
good  or  bad  character  is  made  here /or  eternity,  and  so  must 
long  outlast  and  therefore  infinitely  outweigh  the  transient 
sufterings  of  earthly  moral  discipline.  Paul  had  a  sense  of 
it,  shown  in  the  words — "Our  light  affliction  which  is  for  a 
moment,  worketh  for  us  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal 
weight  of  glory  "  (2  Cor.  4:  17). ... 

INIany  will  admit  this  as  applied  to  discipline,  but  will 
then  insist  that  suffering  inflicted  for  exemplary  retribution 
comes  not  under  the  same  principle  at  all,  especially  if  these 
sufferings  are  eternal  in  duration. To  which  I  must  an- 
swer briefly — that  retributive  inflictions,  being  exemplary  in 
their  purpose,  are  as  really  benevolent  as  disciplinary  suffer- 
ing; that  prevention  is  no  less  wise  and  good  than  cure; 
that  sin  being  what  it  is,  no  human  government  has  ever 
been  sustained,  or  ever  can  be,  without  exemplary  punish- 
ment, and  it  is  arrant  presumption  in  man  to  assume  that 
God's  moral  government  can  be;  and  finally,  that  God 
knows  better  than  we  do  how  many  myriads  of  his  intelligent 
creatures  are  to  be  kept  from  sinning,  saved  from  ruinous 
moral  fall,  by  the  example  of  eternal  retribution  upon  rebels 
hopelessly  mad  and  fixed  in  their  rebellion. 

I  am  well  aAvare  that  it  is  fashionable  to  disparage  the 
influence  of  fear  as  if  it  were  worthless  toward  virtue.  I 
admit  that  neither  the  fear  of  suffering  nor  the  suffering 
itself  will  bring  devils  to  repentance,  nor  does  it  often  turn 
toward  virtue  human  souls  fiir  gone  toward  hopeless  moral 
hardihood.  The  fact  of  its  failure  only  shows  how  far  they 
have  gone  toward  incorrigible  rebellion.  But  the  yet  un- 
sinning  do  feel  its  power,  and,  indeed,  so  do  all  those  whose 
reclamation  to  virtue  is  still  within  hope.  A])parently  this 
is  about  all  that  God  can  expect  from  retributive  suflering. 

6.  Kestating  and  better  iornudatiiig  the  principles  hero 
involved,  let  me  say — that  in  God's  present  ways  of  ])rovi- 
dence,  shown  here  before  our  eyes,  we  learn  (if  anywhere) 


475 

his  character  and  his  eternally  future  policy ;  that  the  suffer- 
ings of  our  race,  coming  from  God's  hand  in  this  world 
(either  by  infliction  or  permission)  are  manifestly  and  most 
certainly  for  good,  moral  purposes,  and  for  these  only ;  that 
they  are  all  comprised  in  one  or  the  other  of  these  two  classes 
— viz.,  for  discipline  or  for  retribution  ;  that  is  to  say,  either 
to  make  the  sufferer  less  sinful  and  more  virtuous  if  so  he  will, 
or  if  he  will  not,  then  to  deter  others  from  sinning  by  his 
exemplary  punishment.  Therefore  all  the  sufferings  of  the 
race  in  this  world — all  that  are  traceable  to  God's  hand — 
look  toward  the  lessening  of  sin  and  toward  more  and  purer 
virtue,  in  the  sufferer's  own  person  if  his  improvement  be 
hopeful — i.  e. ,  morally  possible ;  and  in  the  case  of  others 
than  the  sufferer,  if  his  improvement  have  become  hopeless 
and  his  sufferings  therefore  become  purely  retributive. 

Now  it  is  simply  undeniable  that  God  works  on  these 
principles  in  the  present  world.  It  is  therefore  inferrible 
that  he  works  on  the  same  principles  in  all  future  worlds. 
The  great  problem  of  time  and  of  earth,  put  in  its  simplest 
terms,  is  to  determine  who  is  and  who  is  not  incorrigible ; 
who  will  and  who  will  not  take  God's  discipline  kindly  and 
submit  to  be  made  better,  purer,  holier  thereby.  Discijoline 
to  the  docile  is  a  blessing ;  to  the  rebellious,  by  their  perver- 
sion, a  fearful  curse.  Discipline  gives  place  to  retribution 
only  when  it  must;  then  the  sufferings  of  retribution  are 
utilized  in  wisdom  and  love  for  the  prevention  of  prevent- 
able sin,  whether  in  a  fallen  race,  yet  within  reach  of  reme- 
dial agencies,  or  toward  the  unfallen,  of  whom  God  may 
have  untold  myriads  already  under  moral  training,  and  yet 
unborn  myriads  more,  to  be  created  and  then  morally  trained 
and  kept  in  obedience. 

The  only  plausible  objection  to  this  reasoning  will  be  that 
eternal  suffering  in  the  case  of  the  lost  is  too  dear  a  price  for 
wisdom  to  contract  for  and  for  love  to  endure  for  the  sake 
of  the  holiness  of  creatures  in  God's  universal  kingdom.  It 
thus  becomes  a  question,  not  of  principle,  but  of  quantity. 

The  answer  is — Who  can  judge  of  the  quantity  so  well  as 
God  himself?  What  mortal  mind  shall  presume  to  know 
how  many  worlds  of  moral  agents  are  taking  moral  lessons 
from  the  retributions  sent  of  God  upon  sinners  of  our  race 
and  upon  the  fallen  angels?  and  who  has  estimated  the 
farther  question — how  many  more  worlds  of  moral  agents, 
yet  unborn,  may  find  homes  in  the  starry  universe  and  may 
learn  great  moral  lessons  when  God  shall  have  carried  into 


476 

effect  his  sublime  "intent  that  unto  principalities  and  powers 
in  the  heavenly  places  might  be  made  known  by  the  church 
the  manifold  wisdom  of  God?"     (Eph.  3:  10.) 

IV.  The  fourth  objection  to  the  common  doctrine  is  that 
it  is  forbidden  by  the  voice  of  reason  within  us,  which  (it  is 
claimed)  is  itself  the  voice  of  God. 

This  objection  should  be  met  with  candor  and  discussed 
with  careful  discrimination. 

On  this,  as  on  the  preceding  points,  the  question  is  not  as 
to  the  fact  that  God  has  made  us  capable  to  a  certain  extent 
of  reasoning  and  judging  as  to  what  is  morally  right ;  but  is 
rather  upon  the  limitations  of  this  faculty  and  the  conditions 
of  its  reliable  exercise. 

All  my  argments  made  thus  far  assume  that  our  reasoning 
faculties  may  legitimately  be  exercised  upon  these  problems 
— nay  more,  must  and  should  be.  God  himself  not  only 
permits,  but  invites  us  to  judge  of  his  moral  ways.  Thus 
through  Ezekiel:  ''Are  not  my  ways  equal?  Are  not  your 
w^ays  unequal?"  (Ezek.  18:  25,  29,  and  33:  17,  20.)  Also 
through  Isaiah  (5:  3,  4):  "O  men  of  Israel,  judge,  I  pray 
you,  between  me  and  my  vineyard.  What  could  I  have 
done  to  my  vineyard  (for  its  perfect  culture)  that  I  have 
not  done  in  it?  Wherefore,  when  I  looked  that  it  should 
bring  forth  grapes,  brought  it  forth  wild  grapes?" — So  also 
Jesus  (Luke  12 :  57)  :  "  Why  even  of  yourselves  judge  ye 
not  what  is  right?" 

But  the  Scriptures — i.  e.,  God  speaking  through  them — 
assume  that  man's  reason  and  conscience  may  be  perverted. 
Paul  wrote  to  Titus  (1 :  15)  :  "  Unto  them  that  are  defiled 
and  unbelieving  is  nothing  pure ;  but  even  their  mind  and 
conscience  is  defiled."  Jesus  said  (John  3:  19,  20):  "This 
is  the  condemnation,  that  light  is  come  into  the  world,  and 
men  have  loved  darkness  rather  than  light  because  their 
deeds  are  evil ;  for  every  one  that  doeth  evil  hateth  the  light, 
neither  cometli  to  the  light  lest  his  deeds  should  be  reproved" 
— which  shows  that  man's  heaviest  curse  comes  upon  him 
because  of  his  purposed  self-blinding  of  mind  and  self-hard- 
ening of  heart,  both  caused  by  his  voluntary  loving  of  sin. 
Paul  also  (Rom.  1:  28):  "Even  as  they  did  not  like  to  re- 
tain God  in  tlicir  knowledge,  God  gave  them  over  to  a  repro- 
bate mind;"  and  yet  again  (2  Tliess.  2:  10,  11):  "Because 
they  received  not  the  love  of  the  truth  that  they  might  ])e 
saved,  for  tliis  cause  God  sluill  send  them  strong  (k-hision 
that  they  shouhl  believe  a  lie." — Most  manifestly,  therefore, 


r 


"eternal  hope.^'  477 

man's  moral  state,  as  truth-loving  or  truth  hatmg,  must  pow- 
erfully affect  his  moral  judgments  upon  the  ways  of  God. 
Consequently,  other  things  being  equal,  the  reliability  of 
man's  moral  judgments  as  to  the  justice  of  God's  ways  will 
be  as  his  moral  sympathy  with  God  in  character — will  be 
as  his  real  virtue ;  in  other  words,  as  his  appreciation  and 
approval  of  God's  moral  government,  of  which  government 
the  blessedness  of  benevolent  moral  character  is — as  to  his 
creatures — the  one  supreme  end.  On  the  other  hand,  in 
whatever  degree  man  puts  himself  in  sympathy  with  rebell- 
ion against  God,  he  disqualifies  himself  for  right  moral 
judgments  on  the  question  of  punishment. 

"  No  man  e'er  felt  the  halter  draw 
With  good  opinion  of  the  law." 

Of  this  fact  in  sinning  natures  there  can  be  not  the  least 
doubt. — If  it  be  said,  this  fact  impeaches  the  wisdom  of  the 
Creator,  the  resistless  reply  is  that  it  lies  in  the  essential  na- 
ture of  moral  action.  It  can  never  be  shown — it  is  vain, 
therefore,  to  assume — that  God  could  create  a  moral  being 
exempt  from  the  fearful  possibility  of  the  self-perversion  of 
his  noble,  almost  God-like  powers. 

Again :  Inasmuch  as  our  riglit  moral  judgments  upon  the 
doings  of  another  than  ourselves  depend  upon  our  knowing 
the  circumstances  of  the  case,  it  is  very  obvious  that  our 
moral  judgments  as  to  God's  ways  in  retribution  should  be 
very  modest,  for  the  good  reason  that  he  is  likely  to  know 
the  circumstances  far  better  than  we  can.  Hence  our  judg- 
ments of  God's  ways,  as  compared  Avith  his  judgments  of  his 
own  ways,  must  be  reliable,  and  therefore  valuable  in  the 
compound  ratio  of  our  knowledge  compared  with  his,  and  of 
our  intrinsic  righteousness  of  character  compared  with  his. 
If  it  should  be  the  case  that  our  knowledge  of  the  circum- 
stances is  infinitesimally  small  compared  with  his,  we  shall 
be  (by  so  much)  more  liable  to  misjudge  than  he  is.  So  on 
the  point  of  personal  righteousness ;  if  we  fall  indefinitely 
below  him,  so  must  fall  also  the  relative  value  of  our  moral 
judgments  as  to  his  ways  in  the  punishment  of  sin. 

It  deserves  special  notice  that  when  God  said  through 
Ezekiel — "Are  not  my  ways  equal?" — and  through  Isaiah 
— "  O  men  of  Judah,  judge,  I  pray  you,  between  me  and 
my  vineyard,"  the  case  to  be  estimated  lay  patent  before 
their  eyes.  The  agencies  of  his  visible  providence  towards 
them  at  that  time  formed  the  subject  of  estimation  and 
21  -^ 


478 

judgment.  He  was  not  asking  their  judgment  upon  a 
case  the  facts  of  which  they  could  not  know. 

Over  against  this,  it  does  not  appear  that  God  has  any- 
where proposed  to  men  to  judge  of  the  justice  or  wisdom, 
or  even  the  benevolence  of  his  policy  of  eternal  punishment. 
It  is  at  least  supposable  that,  before  he  should  do  this,  He 
would  take  account  of  the  necessary  limitations  of  our 
knowledge  as  to  the  circumstances  upon  which  even  a  prox- 
imate judgment  as  to  these  points  must  rest. 

Will  it  be  said  or  assumed  that  retribution  for  sin  is  es- 
sentially vicious  in  principle  and  therefore  always  wrong? 
Let  us  not  leap  to  this  conclusion  rashly.  Does  human 
reason  condemn  the  very  principle  itself  of  exemplary,  re- 
tributive punishment?  No  human  civil  government  since 
the  world  began  has  been  a  success  without  it.  Therefore 
it  is  simple  folly  to  assume  that  God  ought  to  manage  his 
moral  government  without  it. 

Or  put  the  case  thus:  It  is  certainly  presumable  (and  in 
my  belief  demonstrable)  that  God  sends  no  sinner  to  hell 
whom  he  can  wisely  save — none  until  he  sees  that  his  best 
remedial  agencies  in  his  behalf  are  powerless.  Then  it  is 
kindness  to  such  sinners  to  stop  their  sinning  on  earth  and 
stay  their  further  accumulation  of  guilt  here;  and  kindness 

to  the  world  to  shut  off  their  pernicious  influence. Then 

and  thenceforward,  it  becomes  a  practical  question  to  the 
divine  mind — What  shall  be  done  with  that  incorrigible 
sinner  ?     How  shall  his  future  existence  be  utilized  for  any 

good  whatever  to   the    moral   universe? Does  it    shock 

our  moral  judgment  to  suppose  that  God's  answer  to  this 
question  is  ; — "  Make  of  him  an  example  to  deter  others 
from  mad  rebellion?  The  universe  needs  such  examples. 
Other  moral  agents  will  be  blessed  by  such  moral  lessons. 
This  doom  is  righteously  due  for  such  guilt  as  his,  and  is 
demanded  by  the  exigencies  of  my  moral  kingdom." 

Now  of  these  exigencies  it  is  reasonable  to  say  tliat  God 
knows  more  than  the  most  far-seeing  of  mortals. 

Here  I  can  not  withhold  a  mild  criticism  upon  Canon 
Farrar's  looseness  in  his  use  of  staple  words— e.  (/.,  *' con- 
S(;ience."  It  is  generally  agreed  to  use  this  word  for  a  man's 
own  moral  sense  considered  as  passing  decisions  upon  his 
own  moral  states  and  acts.  It  is  a  faculty  ior  self-jadying  ;— 
self-approving,  or  self-condemning.  But  my  conscience 
never  judges  anotlier'a  moral  acts— not  even  another  man's; 
far  less  God's. Right  use  of  words  conduces  not  a  little 


"eternal  hope."  479 

to  right  thinking,  as  all  vicious  usage  does  to  vicious  cod- 
clusions.  When  Canon  Farrar  sjDeaks  of  man's  conscience 
as  passing  judgment  upon  God's  ways,  he  tacitly  assumes 
that  man's  moral  judgments  upon  God  are  just  as  valid  as 
his  moral  judgments  upon  himself — than  which  nothing  can 
be  more  false,  delusive  to  man,  abusive  to  God. 

Passing  this  minor  criticism,  let  us  note; — While  the 
common  doctrine  of  Christendom  has  always  been  that  the 
revealed  word  of  God  is  the  only  infallible  rule  of  faith  and 
so  of  truth  as  to  God's  treatment  of  sin  and  of  sinners. 
Canon  Farrar  finds  other  Bibles  and  other  sources  of  reliable 
knowledge.  He  "  believes  that  reason,  conscience  and  ex- 
perience are  books  of  God  which  must  have  a  direct  voice 

in  these  great  decisions"  (p.   53). Again;  ''What  the 

Bible  teaches  as  a  whole;  what  the  Bibles  [plural]  teach  as 
a  whole — for  History,  and  Conscience  and  Nature  and  Ex- 
perience— these,  too,  are  sacred  books ; — that,  and  that  only, 
is  the  immutable  law  of  God "  (p.  206). 

Time  would  fail  me  to  canvass  the  divine  authority  of 
these  four  new  Bibles  on  the  point  of  their  teachings  as  to 
future  punishment.  But  let  it  be  at  least  suggested  that, 
even  conceding  to  them  some  legitimate  bearing,  perhaps 
Canon  Farrar  has  misread  their  lessons.  Has  profane  his- 
tory borne  no  testimony  to  the  fact  that  nations  have  rotted 
down  in  their  own  vices  and  moral  corruptions,  and  have 
rushed  on  swiftly  to  their  righteous  doom  of  perdition  ?  Has 
sacred  history,  coming  from  God,  witnessed  nothing  as  to 
the  righteous  justice  of  God  in  terribly  exterminating  retri- 
butions ? 

Has  conscience  never  testified — I  am  awfully  guilty;  I 
deserve  the  deepest  hell!  Has  Canon  Farrar  never  known 
a  case  in  which  conscience  has  filled  the  human  soul  with 
unutterable  agony — an  agony  which  seemed  to  the  guilty 
sufferer  to  be  jiist,  and  to  be  scarcely  less  dreadful  than  hell 
itself?  ^ 

Again ;  if  we  may  assume  that  the  human  constitution — 
the  physical  part  especially,  yet  the  mental  also — may  be 
one  of  the  chapters  in  his  new  Bible  called  ''  Nature,"  then 
let  us  ask — Does  not  every  appetite  and  lust  of  body  testify 
to  the  wreck  and  ruin  of  sin?  Do  they  not  with  awful  voice 
witness  to  the  self-perpetuating  power  of  this  wasting  and 
desolation?  Man's  faculties  as  made  by  his  Maker  are  no- 
ble, almost  God-like  ;  but  who  does  not  know  that  by  sin- 
ful abuse  they  become   inlets  and   sources   of  unutterable 


480 

anguish?  Do  not  such  physical  and  moral  wrecks  of  hu- 
manity utter  some  voice,  not  only  upon  the  justice  of  pun- 
ishment, but  upon  its  nature  and  its  inevitableness? 

Time  fails  me  to  follow  Canon  Farrar  further  in  the  line 

of  direct  criticism  and  refutation. It  is  in  place,  however, 

to  suggest  some  considerations  which  bear  strongly  against 
the  hope  of  another  probation  and  of  future  repentance,  and 
which  consequently  serve  to  confirm  the  voice  of  Scripture 
as  to  the  eternity  of  future  punishment. 

1.  The  self-perpetuating  nature  and  self-strengthening  power 

of  sin. This  law  of  sinning  natures  in  fallen  beings  is  no 

less  manifest  and  undeniable  than  the  fact  of  sin  itself.  It 
w^ere  of  no  use  to  debate  any  moral  question  with  the  man 
who  denies  it.  Every-where  the  awful  fact  meets  and  ap- 
palls us;  every-where  the  drunkard,  the  debauchee,  the 
miser,  the  impenitent,  self-hardening  hearer  of  the  gospel — 
as  a  rule — wax  worse  and  worse.  Under  a  common  law — 
not  a  law  of  necessity,  and  so  not  a  perfectly  invariable  law, 
yet  one  of  terrific  power,  sin  hardens  the  heart  for  more  and 
guiltier  sinning.  "  He  that,  being  often  reproved,  harden- 
eth  his  neck,"  moves  on  naturally  towards  the  doom  of  a 
destruction,  at  once  sudden  and  remediless. Thus  the  in- 
fluences of  earthly  probation  hasten  toward  a  fixedness  of 
moral  character  which  naturally  shuts  off  hope  of  change, 
and  much  more,  of  reversal,  in  any  world  hereafter.  Such 
supposed  reversal  is  utterly  against  nature,  and  therefore 
against  hope — all  the  more  so  if  it  shall  appear  even  prob- 
able that  redemptive  influences  are  pressed  in  this  world  by 
the  loving  Father  fully  up  to  the  limit  of  ho^^efulness  if  not 
even  of  moral  possibility. 

2.  As  already  suggested,  it  is  supposable  and  in  my  belief 
demonstrable  (nay  more,  demonstrated  with  all  the  evidence 
possible  in  an  argument  built  upon  God's  love  and  wisdom) 
— that  God  presses  his  efforts  to  reclaim  sinners  (while  exer- 
cising their  moral  agency)  until  further  effort  becomes  hope- 
less. He  knows  and  marks  with  sorrow  the  moment  when 
they  reach  and  pass  this  point.  Then  even  mercy  can  do 
for  tliem  nothing  more.  And  the  assumption  that  some 
other  moral  world  will  be  better  constructed  for  remedial  pur- 
poses than  this  is  not  only  gratuitous,  but  is  an  impeachment 
of  God's  wisdom  in  framing  this.  For,  beyond  all  question, 
this  world  was  framed  for  remedial,  not  foi-  penal  purposes. 
And  if  God  made  a  mistake  in  shaping  its  constituent  ele- 
ments, who  can  say  He  will  succeed  better  the  next  time? 


481 

If  this  world,  avowedly  framed  for  redemptive  work,  is  yet 
so  imperfect  that  God  must  needs  try  again,  what  becomes 
of  our  confidence  in  his  wisdom  ? 

3.  As  to  the  sufferer,  penal  sufferings  are  not  reformatory, 
and  apparently  were  never  intended  or  expected  to  be.  In 
harmony  with  all  our  knoAvledge  of  incorrigibly  rebellious  nat- 
ures, the  sacred  word  testifies  (Rev.  16 :  9-11)  that  when  "pow- 
er was  given  to  the  fourth  angel  to  scorch  men  with  fire,  they 
blasphemed  the  name  of  God  and  repented  not  to  give  him 
glory";  and  that  under  the  outpoured  vial  of  the  fifth  angel, 
"they  gnawed  their  tongues  for  pain  and  blasphemed  the 
God  of  heaven  because  of  their  pains  and  of  their  sores,  and 
repented  not  to  give  him  glory." 

To  every  candid  judge  of  the  case,  this  appalling  fact  is 

chilling  to  "  eternal  hope." The  principle  applies  in  its 

strength  to  the  fallen  angels,  and  is  illustrated  and  verified 
in  their  case.  If  the  future  world  has  in  it  new  moral  forces 
toward  reform,  an  advance  upon  the  present  world,  how 
happens  it  that  never  a  fallen  angel  has  felt  their  moral 
power?  Certainly  so  far  as  is  known  to  us,  no  fallen  angel 
has  ever  repented  and  been  saved.  That  he  would  be  saved 
if  he  were  to  repent,  need  not,  for  our  argument,  be  denied. 
But  in  fact  he  does  not  repent.  Hell  is  before  his  eyes,  and 
is  not  a  thing  of  mere  faith;  he  knows  his  future,  more  awful 
doom — "Why  art  thou  come  to  torment  us  before  the  time  ?  " 

(Matt.  8  :  29) — yet  not  a  soul  of  them  repents. Now  let 

this  fact  be  coupled  with  the  revealed  truth  that  lost  men 
have  their  final  destiny  along  with  those  lost  angels ;  in  the 
same  place,  under  a  form  of  punishment  prepared  originally 
for  them;  and  the  doctrine  of  "eternal  hope"  for  the  lost 
sinners  of  our  world — precious  as  such  hope  would  be  if  only 
there  were  ground  for  it — if  only  God  could  make  place  for  it 
in  a  moral  universe — must  be  burdened  with  a  fearful  weight 
of  improbability. 

4.  We  must  meet  the  fact  that  the  Scriptures  everywhere 

assume  the  moral  issues  of  this  life  to  be  a  finality. Some 

of  the  emphatic  passages  on  this  point  have  been  brought 
under  notice  already — some,  but  by  no  means  all.  Their 
number  is  "  legion."  It  is  undeniably  assumed  throughout 
the  Scriptures.  AVith  one  common  voice  prophets  and  apos- 
tles proclaim,  "  Now  is  the  accepted  time;  now,  the  day  of 
salvation."    "While  yet  it  is  called,  To-day,  harden  not  your 

heart." To  the  passages  already  suggested,  I  have  space 

to  add  but  one  more.     The  force  of  this  depends  much  on 


482 

its  connection. The  Revelator  John  in  his  two  closing  chap- 
ters puts  before  us  the  holy  city  with  its  pure  and  blessed 
occupants,  and  in  the  contrast,  the  realms  ivithout  where  all 
incorrigible  sinners  have  their  home  and  destiny.  He  de- 
clares that  into  the  holy  city  nothing  morally  defiled  can  ever 
enter ;  while  in  the  regions  outside,  all  morally  abominable 
souls  have  their  fit  and  congenial  home.  Now  it  is  in  this 
very  connection  that  he  utters  these  memorable  words ;  *'  He 
that  is  unjust,  let  him  be  unjust  still;  he  that  is  fiilthy,  let 
him  be  filthy  still ;  he  that  is  righteous,  let  him  be  righteous 
still;  and  he  that  is  holy,  let  him  be  holy  still"  (22  :  11). 
Let  none  hope  that  the  filthy  are  to  be,  thereafter,  washed 
from  their  filthiness,  and  admitted  into  the  holy  city.  The 
awful  finality  of  doom  closes  forever  those  celestial  gates 
against  hope  of  moral  change  in  the  realms  of  the  lost. 

5.  The  Scriptures  are  utterly  silent  as  to  future,  ''eternal 

hope"  for  sinners  dying  in   their   sins. "  The  wicked," 

they  declare,  "is  driven  away"  [at  death]  "m  his  wicked- 
ness" [not  from  it]  ;  "  but  the  righteous"  (in  wide  and  utter 

contrast)  "hath  hope  in  his  death"  (Prov.  14:  32). This 

unbroken  silence  as  to  hope  in  the  sinner's  future  must  be 
estimated  and  judged  of  under  the  full  admission  that  God 
is  infinitely  honest  and  truthful.  If  there  were  grounds  for 
such  hope,  it  is  simply  inconceivable  that  God  in  his  revealed 
word  should  everywhere  ignore — everywhere  suppress  them. 
To  assume  even  tacitly  that  God  acts  on  the  Jesuit  principle 
of  "doing  evil  that  good  may  come  " — of  suppressing  the  truth 
and  apparently  assuming  that  to  be  true  which  is  not  true, 
for  the  sake  of  a  stronger  moral  pressure  upon  sinners  to  re- 
pent to-day,  is  too  revolting!  I  can  not  bring  myself  to 
refute  or  even  discuss  it. 

6.  Another  fact  of  powerful  bearing  upon  this  doctrine  of 
"eternal  hope"  is  rarely  considered  and  rarely  appreciated 
in  its  full  force — viz.,  the  deep,  intense,  and  even  agonizing 
earnestness  of  Jesus  and  of  his  faithful  apostles  and  prophets 
in  persuading  men  to  flee  from  the  "  wrath  to  come."  Every- 
where they  speak,  they  plead,  they  labor  to  persuade,  as  if 
tlicy  felt  to  the  very  depth  of  their  souls  that  the  issue  is 
one  of  life  and  death — a  life  eternal,  or  a  death  no  less  eter- 
nal. "Knowing,  therefore,  the  terror  of  the  Lord,"  said 
Paul,  "  we  persuade  men"  (2  Cor.  5:  11).  "  For  the  space 
of  three  years,  I  ceased  not  to  warn  every  man,  night  and 

day,  with  tears,"  (Acts  20:  31). Tlio  prophets  speak  in 

God's  behalf  when,  with  almost  breaking  heart  they  cry; 


"eteknal  hope."  483 

"  How  shall  I  give  thee  up,  Ephraim?  How  shall  I  deliver 
thee,  Israel?  How  shall  I  make  thee  as  Admah,"  etc.  ?  (Hos. 
11 :  8). Most  expressive  on  this  point  are  the  words  (Jere- 
miah 13 :  15-17)  :  "  Hear  ye  and  give  ear;  be  not  proud,  for 
the  Lord  hath  spoken.  Give  glory  to  the  Lord  your  God  be- 
fore he  cause  darkness,  and  before  your  feet  stumble  upon  the 
dark  mountains ;  and  while  ye  look  for  light,  he  turn  it  into  the 
shadow  of  death,  and  make  it  gross  darkness.  But  if  ye 
will  not  hear  it,  my  soul  shall  weep  in  secret  places  for  your 

pride." What  w^ords  could  be  more  telling?     If  I  must 

fail  in  every  endeavor  to  warn  and  to  save,  I  can  at  least 
"withdraw  from  among  men  to  bewail  in  secret  places  the 
pride  and  the  perverseness  which  shut  down  forever  upon 
all  hope! 

7.  The  ground  or  reason  given  in  the  Scriptures  for  God's 
long-suffering  toward  sinners  in  time  assumes  that  this  is 
man's  last   moral  trial — his  last  opportunity  for  salvation. 

That  God  should  let  rebels  live  in  peace  and  prosperity 

in  any  world  of  his,  is  a  fact  to  be  accounted  for.  The 
Scriptures  do  account  for  it,  in  precisely  one  way  and  one 
only,  viz. ,  that  God  truly,  earnestly  longs  for  their  salvation : 
— "  Not  willing  (in  the  sense  of  real,  strong  desire)  that  any 
should  perish,  but  that  all  should  come  to  repentance"  (2 
Pet.  3:  9). — "Account  the  long-suffering  of  the  Lord  to  be 
salvation" — [in  its  aim  and  purpose]  (2  Pet.  3:  15).  All 
this  implies  that  here  God  waits  for  sinners  to  repent,  to  the 
utmost  limit  of  hope.  This  limit  being  reached,  there  will 
be  no  like  waiting  in  the  world  of  doom.  God  has  no  thought 
of  any  similar  long-suffering  in  the  world  to  come.  These 
facts  assume  that  the  sinner's  moral  choice,  made  here  in 
time,  is  a  finality. 

8.  At  the  final  judgment  (so  the  Scriptures  show)  God 
will  take  pains  to  vindicate,  before  the  assembled  universe, 
his  justice  in  the  sinner's  eternal  doom.  So  Jesus  showed 
most  clearly  in  his  detailed  account  of  the  grounds  for  his 
sentence  respectively  against  the  wicked  and  in  favor  of  the 
righteous.  (Matt.  25:  34-48.)  According  to  Jude  (v.  14, 
15)  God  will  vindicate  himself  before  the  sinner's  own  con- 
science: *'To  convince  all  the  ungodly  of  their  ungodly 
deeds,  which  they  have  wickedly  committed."  This  would 
be  premature,  not  to  saj^  superfluous,  if  the  great  question 
is  not  even  then  settled ;  if  the  really  final  issues  of  probation 
are  then  yet  to  be  reached,  and  the  question  of  repentance 
and  pardon  is  still  lying  open. 


484 

This  group  of  facts  and  circumstances — each  severally 
strong;  all  combined,  rising  to  the  force  of  moral  demonstra- 
tion— must  shut  off  all  rational  ground  for  ''Eternal  Hoj)e" 
in  the  case  of  sinners  who  prove  themselves  incorrigible  un- 
der all  the  appliances  of  earthly  probation. 

Future  probation,  put  hypothetically. 

The  question  of  future  hope  tlirough  probation  renewed 
after  death,  has  been  recently  put  before  the  American  pub- 
lic in  the  somewhat  modified  form  of  purely  hypothetical 
statements,  as  being  supposable — a  thing  that  may  be. 

In  the  outset  it  will  be  seen  that  the  putting  forth  of  this 
hypothesis  by  professedly  Christian  men  assumes  that  such 
speculations  are  legitimate.  If  they  are  so,  it  must  be  be- 
cause the  Scriptures  have  left  the  question  open  and  unset- 
tled ;  or  because,  their  testimony  on  the  point,  though  given 
clearly,  is  not  decisive  authority.  For  if  it  be  true  that  the 
Scriptures  have  closed  the  door  of  hope  as  to  a  future  proba- 
tion, and  if  it  be  also  true  and  admitted  that  their  authority 
on  the  point  is  final,  then  such  speculations  are  in  nowise 
legitimate.  No  friend  of  God  and  of  truth  can  rightly 
indulge  himself  in  making  them.  They  are  in  their  nature 
too  perilous  to  be  made — too  certain  to  be  seized  upon  by 
sin-loving  men  for  encouragement  in  persistent  sinning 
through  this  life,  in  hope  of  escape  from  its  consequences  by 
means  of  the  after-probation.  Let  these  points,  involved  in 
this  alternative,  be  borne  in  mind  as  we  proceed. 

In  the  face  of  them,  the  new  departure  sets  forth — 

1.  That  it  is  in  the  nature  of  the  case  supposable  that 
probation  may  be  resumed  and  brought  to  a  focal  i)oint 
immediately  after  death — when  in  the  efiulgence  of  the  new 
light  of  the  eternal  world,  the  soul  may  at  once,  either  ac- 
cept or  reject  the  offer  of  salvation  in  Christ,  and  its  ulti- 
mate destiny  may  thus  turn  upon  this  after-death  decision. 

2.  That  the  Scriptures  favor  this  theory  inasmuch  as 
Jesus  taught  that  "  many  who  had  never  heard  of  liim  shall 
be  gathered  into  his  kingdom  ; "  and  John  has  said  of  some 
"that  in  the  future  life  they  shalL  see  Jesusasheis"  (1  Eps. 
3:  2). 

3.  Tliat  this  theory  is  sustained  by  tlie  fact  that  in  the 
present  life  multitudes  have  a  very  poor  chance  for  salva- 
tion— because  of  their  meager  or  only  false  light;  their 
untoward  surroundings,  and  their  immensely  strong  sinful 
l^assions. 

4.  As  to  their  bearing    upon   the  hypothesis  of  renewed 


485 

probation,  these  adverse  influences  must  be  judged  of  in  the 
light  of  God's  infinite  love  and  his  consequent  infinite  de- 
sire that  all  men  be  saved.  From  his  known  character  it  is 
inferred  that  so  long  as  there  is  hope  of  reclaiming  sinners 
by  means  of  renewed  probation,  God  will  try  them  with  the 
opportunity,  though  all  earthly  agencies  and  opportunities 
have  proved  unavailing. 

Against  these  hypothetical  suppositions,  and  against  the 
points  made  in  their  support,  it  must  be  said — 

1.  The  Scriptures  are  not  silent,  nor  is  their  voice  to  this 
point  dubious ;  but  they  have  spoken-  distinctly,  emphatic- 
ally, decisively.  Much  of  this  Scripture  testimony  has  been 
presented  in  the  previous  pages  of  this  essay.  Let  it  suffice 
here  to  say  that  all  the  parables  in  which  Jesus  has  set  forth 
the  grand  and  ultimate  results  of  his  moral  kingdom — all 
those  in  which  he  signifies  to  us  the  trusts,  talents,  oppor- 
tunities of  our  earthly  life — unite  in  this  one  point — that 
the  moral  decisions  of  men  as  toward  God,  made  in  the 
present  life,  are  final.  Jesus  could  not,  by  any  supposable 
representations,  have  made  this  more  clear  and  decisive  than 
he  has.  Then  again,  the  state  immediately  following  death 
is  described  in  the  account  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus, 
unmistakably.  (Luke  16:  19-31.)  If  such  teachings  as 
we  have  in  this  chapter  do  not  close  the  door  of  hope 
against  future  probation,  no  words  can  do  it. 

2.  The  Scriptures,  legitimately  interpreted,  have  nowhere 
uttered  the  slightest  whisper  in  favor  of  such  rencAved  pro- 
bation, their  doctrine  being — "After  death,  the  judgment" 
(Heb.  9  :  27)  ;  after  death,  "  the  wicked  driven  away  in 
his  wickedness ;"  while  "the  righteous"  (and  he  only) 
"hath  hope  in  his  death"  (Prov.  14:  32).  If  it  be  said 
that  we  ought  not  to  expect  a  whisper  of  it,  even  though  it 
were  true,  such  a  truth  being  of  a  dangerous  tendency  and 
bearing  ;  then  it  behooves  us  to  consider  whether  a  doctrine 
too  dangerous  to  be  revealed  is  not  also  too  dangerous  to  be 
true.  For,  men  are  to  be  converted  and  saved  by  and 
through  the  truth.  This  is  what  the  truth  concerning  God 
and  his  kingdom  is  good  for :  toward  this  result,  all  moral 
truth  concerning  God  and  his  kingdom  converges  and  none 
of  it  can  by  any  possibility  be  injurious  to  human  souls. 
That  there  should  be  some  features  of  God's  character,  some 
points  in  his  scheme  for  human  salvation,  which  it  would 
be  perilous  to  the  race  to  know,  which  points  are  therefore 
prudently  suppressed,  is  too  revolting  to  be  even  supposable. 


486  "eternal  hope/' 

Need  I  press  tlie  points  already  made  and  ask — Is  the  Spirit 
of  inspiration  thoroughly  frank  and  honest  toward  men? 
Does  God  press  sinners  to  repent  in  this  "accepted  time," 
as  if  there  were  no  other  time,  keeping  back  the  real  truth  as 
to  the  future  probation,  lest  it  should  take  the  force  out  of 
his  words  of  admonition  and  entreaty?  Can  we,  for  a  mo- 
ment, suppose  that  such  tacit  suppression  of  real  truth  and 
putting  of  the  case  as  it  is  not  are  in  harmony  with  God's 
eternal  veracity  and  his  perfect  honesty  ? 

3.  The  allusions  to  Scripture  testimony  (as  in  No.  2, 
above),  are  in  my  view  inept  and  misleading.  Both  Jesus 
and  Paul  did  say  that  "  multitudes  who  had  never  heard  of 
Christ  should  be  gathered  into  his  kingdom.  But  mani- 
festly they  said  this  with  reference  to  Gentiles,  then  soon 
to  be  called  in,  and  not  at  all  with  reference  to  souls  past 
the  "bourne"  of  death.  Whoever  will  take  the  pains  to 
compare  Matt.  8:  ll;  12  and  Luke  13:  28,  29  and  John 
11:  52  and  10:  16  and  Isa.  52:  15  and  56:  8  and  Kom.  9: 
24-26  *  will  see  how  prominently  this  calling  in  of  the  Gen- 
tiles was  then  before  the  mind,  and  how  certainly  Christ's 
allusions  above  referred  to,  must  be  applied  to  this  and  to 

*  "And  I  i5ay  unto  you,  That  many  shall  come  from  the  east  and 
west,  and  shall  sit  down  with  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.  But  the  children  of  the  kingdom  shall  be 
cast  out  into  outer  darkness  :  there  shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing 
of  teeth." 

"  There  shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth,  when  ye  shall 
see  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  all  the  prophets  in  the 
kingdom  of  God,  and  you  yourselves  thrust  out.  And  they  shall 
come  from  the  east,  and  from  the  west,  and  from  the  north,  and 
Jrom  the  south,  and  shall  sit  down  in  the  kingdom  of  God." 

"  And  not  for  that  nation  only,  but  that  also  he  should  gather 
together  in  one  the  children  of  God  that  were  scattered  abroad." 

"  And  other  sheep  I  have,  which  are  not  of  this  fold  :  them  also 
I  must  bring,  and  they  shall  hear  my  voice  ;  and  there  shall  be  one 
fold,  a7ir/one  shepherd." 

*' »So  shall  he  sj)rinkle  many  nations;  the  kings  shall  shut  their 
mouths  at  him  :  for //jaMvhich  had  not  been  tokl  them  shall  they 
eee  ;  and  that  which  they  had  not  heard  shall  they  consider." 

**  The  Lord  God  wiiich  gathereth  tiie  outcasts  of  Israel  saith, 
Yet  will  I  gather  others  to  him,  beside  those  that  are  gathered  unto 
him." 

"  Even  us,  whom  he  hath  called,  not  of  the  Jews  only,  but  also 
of  the  Gentiles?  As  he  saith  also  in  Osee,  I  will  call  them  my 
I)eoi)le,  which  were  not  my  peoi>le;  and  her  beloved,  which  was 
not  beloved.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  in  the  i)lace  wliere  it 
was  said  unto  them,  Y(i  are  not  my  i)eople  ;  there  shall  tiiey  be 
called  the  children  of  the  living  C»od." 


487 

nothing  else.  So  also  John's  words,  * '  Shall  see  Jesus  as  he 
is"  are  closely  and  certainly  restricted  by  the  context  to 
"  Sons  of  God,"  and  more  definitely  still,  to  those  who  are 
now — in  the  present  life — his  sons:  "  Beloved,  now  are  we 
the  sons  of  God ;  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be, 
but  we  know  that  when  he  shall  appear  we  shall  be  like 
him,  for  Ave  shall  see  him  as  he  is."  Can  it  be  legitimate  to 
assume  that  those  of  whom  Jesus  declares — *'  I  never  knew 
you ;  depart  from  me,"  will  have  this  beatific  vision  ?  If 
this  is  to  be  accepted  as  fair  Scripture  interpretation,  what 
can  ever  be  ruled  out  as  foul? 

4.  In  so  far  as  the  speculations  now  referred  to  set  forth 
that  the  present  probationary  system  is  badly  constituted, 
and  therefore  works  very  imperfectly,  so  that  a  better  one 
becomes  consequently  probable,  they  disparage  the  Avisdom 
of  God  and  strangely   misrepresent  the  real  facts  of  the 

case. Moreover,  in  so  far  as  they  magnify  the  force  of 

temptation  to  the  extent  of  real  apology  for  sinners  Avho 
yield  to  its  poAver ;  and  also  minify  the  guilt  of  sin — real 
rebellion  against  God ;  in  so  far  as  they  Avould  represent  sin 
as  more  man's  misfortune  than  his  fault,  and  the  sinner's 
temptations  to  sin  as  so  overmastering  that  really  God  ought 
to  give  him  another — a  better  and  more  favorable  trial ; — 
these  settings  forth  of  the  case  are  in  strange  antagonism  to 

the  doctrine  of  the  Scriptures  and  to  the  actual  facts. 

For  consider:  The  mass  of  those  A\'ho  reach  the  point  of 
moral  accountability  have  more  time  for  repentance  than 
they  knoAV  Avhat  to  do  Avith,  so  that  A^ery  commonly  they  set 
themselves  to  kill  time  in  vanities  and  dissipations;  have 
more  admonitions  of  various  sort  than  they  have  patience  or 
heart  to  heed;  have  more  light  to  use  Avisely  or  to  sin 
against  than  they  have  any  heart  to  use  Avell.  What  the 
Lord  said  of  Israel,  he  might  truly  say  of  the  myriads  in 
gospel  lands:   "What  could  have  been  done  more  to  my 

vineyard  that  I  have  not  done  in  it?"     (Isa.  5:  4). It 

Avould  be  a  long  chapter  that  should  merely  catalogue  the 
agencies  and  instrumentalities  Avith  Avhich  God  fills  our 
Avorld,  all  shaped  for  purposes  of  probation  and  for  its  suc- 
cessful Avorking  and  results  : — agencies  of  truth  and  agencies 
of  providence;  agencies  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  superinducing 
divine  poAver  to  convict  and  convert  sinful  men  ; — his  proA'- 
idences  bearing  them  through  scenes  of  affliction  designed 
and  shaped  to  utilize  bereavements,  losses,  sufferings,  and 
the  scenes  of  death  ever  before  their  eyes ;  all  proclaiming 


488 

the  warnings  of  God  through  a  thousand  tongues; — God 
himself  pressing  all  these  pleas  with  most  patient  long-suf- 
fering blended  with  marvelous  loving-kindness  and  mercies 
— all,  that  "the  goodness  of  God  might  lead  them  to  re- 
pentance" and  that  the  warnings  of  God  might  press  them 

to   "flee  from   the  wrath  to  come." It  is  also  in  God's 

plan  to  use  the  cooperating  agencies  of  his  people  in  this 
work  all  through  human  life  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave. 
He  implores  and  expects  them  to  utilize  all  the  agen- 
cies of  example,  instruction,  persuasion,  and  all  the  forces 
that  can  be  wielded  by  love,  symj)athy,  faithfulness,  to 
reach  the  hearts  of  the  sinning  and  to  draw  them  back  to 
God.  It*  they  are  less  faithful  and  less  successful  than  they 
might  be,  it  can  never  be  said  that  God  has  not  planned 
well  in  this  great  moral  scheme  ;  can  never  be  said  that  he 
has  not  brought  motives  of  mightiest  power  upon  their 
souls  to  ])Yess  them  to  the  truest  faithfulness  and  the  most 

earnest  endeavor. But  we  can  scarcely  begin  to  open — 

we  can  by  no  means  exhaust  this  great  theme. 

If  it  be  said  (it  has  been  said  and  will  be  again)  that  a 
great  part  of  the  race  thus  far  have  not  heard  the  gospel, 
to  this  God  himself  makes  answer: — They  who  have  sinned 
under  law  only  (not  having  the  gospel)  shall  be  judged  by 
the  law;  they  who  have  had  no  written  law  shall  be  judged 
by  the  unwritten  law  of  their  own  conscience — "  their  con- 
science meanwhile  accusing  or  else  excusing"  (Rom.  2:  15). 

If  it  be  said,  and  said  truly,  that  as  servants,  they  "have 

not  known  their  master's  will,  they  shall  be  beaten  with  few 
stripes" — and  this  only  to  the  extent  (manifestly)  of  the  sense 

of  right  and  wrong  which  was  in  them. It  has  been  often 

said  that  earthly  probation  is  full  of  diversities  and  inequal- 
ities, running  through  an  almost  infinite  variety  of  circum- 
stances and  opportunities.  Very  well,  what  then?  Every 
soul,  having  moral  accountability,  has  moral  opportunities 
— he  of  one  talent  no  less  tlian  he  of  ten.  It  is  by  no 
means  necessary  to  his  moral  trial  that  he  should  have  much 
liglit  rather  than  little,  or  little  rather  than  much  ;  much 
native  mental  ability  rather  than  little,  or  little  rather  than 
]nuch.  It  matters  not  as  to  the  fact  or  the  e(]uity  of  his 
moral  trial  whether  he  have  only  the  unwritten  law  of  con- 
science, or  this  with  God's  written  law  besides;  or  both  with 
all  which  the  revealed  gospel  supi)lies.  Tiie  justice  of  God 
will  be  vindicated  if  he  is  judged  upon  what  he  has  and 
never  upon  what   he  has  not.      To  suppose   that  God  is 


489 

either  unable  or  "im willing  to  adjust  future  retribution  to  the 
light  sinned  against  and  to  the  guilt  actually  incurred  by 
each  individual's  own  sin,  estimated  in  view  of  every  cir- 
cumstance affecting  his  responsibility  and  measuring  his 
guilt,  is  to  suppose  him  to  be  incompetent  to  the  responsi- 
bilities of  Final  Judge.  No  mortal  man,  be  he  God-fearing 
or  God-hating,  need  have  the  least  fear  of  incapacity  on 
God's  part  for  the  most  righteous  judgment,  or  of  any,  even 
the  least,  negligence  as  to  awarding  the  final  sentence  upon 
the  deeds  of  life's  probation  according  to  the  principles  of 
perfect  justice. 

It  may  be  thought  that  the  case  of  infants,  dying  before 
moral  accountability,  should  receive  notice  here.  In  some 
of  its  aspects — not  in  all — this  case  is  foreign  from  our 
theme,  and  should  therefore  be  treated,  if  at  all,  with  the 
utmost  brevity. 

I  suggest  the  following  points : 

The  Scriptures  have  said  nothing  on  this  subject  directly. 
What  they  say  in  direct  terms  has  reference  to  those  who 
reach  and  who  exercise  moral  agency  here.  Therefore  w^hat- 
ever  light  they  throw  upon  this  subject  comes  through  in- 
ference from  the  princi^^les  of  God's  revealed  moral  govern- 
ment. 

From  these  principles  we  may  infer — 1.  That  not  being 
sinners,  they  are  not  condemned  as  if  they  were.  There 
being  no  demand  on  the  score  of  justice  for  their  condemna- 
tion, they  are  not  condemned. 

2.  Inasmuch  as  it  is  manifestly  the  law  of  God's  universal 
moral  kingdom  to  save  all  whom  he  wisely  can  save,  and 
never  the  least  number  possible  to  him  but  always  the  great- 
est number  possible ;  it  is  certainly  within  hope — not  to  say 
within  reasonable  expectation — that  God  has  devised  some 
plan  under  which  they  may  develop  their  intellectual  and 
moral  faculties  in  the  future  life  in  a  way  to  insure  their 
salvation. 

3.  More  definitely  still,  it  is  supposable  that  they  are 
given  to  Christ  as  part  of  that  reward  promised  him  for  the 
travail  of  his  soul  (Isaiah  53:  11),  which  shall  satisfy  the 
infinite  love  he  has  manifested  in  his  self-sacrifice  for  the 
race. 

4.  Of  the  nature  of  their  probation  in  the  life  beyond,  we 
can  know  nothing  definite — whether  it  involve  moral  peril, 
or  whether  it  be  certain  of  good  result,  we  can  not  know  ab- 
solutely; but  we  can  commit  the  issue  to  God  as  to  One  who 


490  "eternal  hope.'* 

never  plans  unwisely,  and  never  fails  to  execute  through 
any  lack  of  the  resources  of  power. — So  much  on  the  case 
of  infants  who  did  not  reach  moral  accountability  in  this 
hfe. 

Let  it  not  be  said  that  this  doctrine  of  something  anal- 
ogous to  probation  in  the  case  of  infants — of  the  nature  of 
education,  involving  intellectual  and  moral  development — 
opens  wide  the  door  for  a  renewed  probation  after  death  for 
all  or  any  of  the  actual  sinners  of  our  race.  This  would  be 
said  (if  said)  with  no  reason  behind  it.  For  the  two  cases 
are  utterly  unlike,  having  no  elements  in  common.  One 
probation  for  all  who  are  or  may  become  moral  agents  is 
reasonable ;  more  than  one  we  can  see  to  be  utterly  unrea- 
sonable ;  more  than  one  would  naturally  tend  to  frustrate 
tlie  legitimate  ends  of  all  probation,  and  hence  could  not  be 
either  wise  or  good. — Moreover,  probation  under  any  cir- 
cumstances whatever  tends  mightily  toward  fixedness  of 
moral  character;  and  in  so  far,  renders  any  supposable  re- 
newal by  a  second  probation  extremely  improbable.  But 
one  probation  must  naturally  come  to  all.  Infants  dying 
before  they  reach  it  here,  must  naturally,  not  to  say  neces- 
sarily, enter  upon  it  when  in  the  natural  development  of 
their  constitutional  powers  they  come  to  know  God  and  his 
moral  claims  upon  their  hearts.  Such  knowledge  carries 
with  it  essential  probation,  let  it  dawn  on  the  mind  when 
and  where  it  may. 

I  can  not  close  this  review  of  modern  hypothetical  specu- 
lations without  saying — That  in  the  face  of  all  which  the 
Scriptures  have  said  and  assumed,  showing  that  the  present 
probation  is  a  finality,  these  speculations  do  exceedingly  dis- 
honor the  testimony  of  the  Scriptures,  inasmuch  as  they 
unwarrantably  expatiate  in  a  field  of  conjecture  which  God 
has  purposely  closed,  thus  rendering  a  bold  disservice  to  the 
interests  of  human  salvation.  They  virtually  cry  peace, 
peace,  when  and  where  there  is  no  peace;  encourage  pro- 
crastination not  only  until  owar  death,  but  until  after  deatli, 
thus  fearfully  counteracting  those  forces  of  truth  by  means 
of  whicli  God  would  convert  men  ere  yet  it  be  too  late.  I 
speak  not  now  of  the  aim  and  purpose  of  those  who  put 
forth  these  speculations  and  hypotheses.  Of  these  alms  I 
have  neither  occasion  or  desire  to  speak.  I  refer  to  natural, 
not  to  say  inevitable  tendencies  and  results. — I  can  suppose 
it  may  seem  to  the  authors  of  these  speculations  that  God's 
justice  requires  of  them  this  vindication.     If  they  think  so,  I 


THEODICY.  491 

judge  tliat  they  very  much  misconceive  the  case.  If  God's 
justice  needed  this  vindication,  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  he 
would  have,  said  or  at  least  implied  it  in  his  word.  We 
might  surely  look  for  it  in  those  most  minute  and  emphatic 
representations  which  so  often  fell  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  in 
regard  to  the  abuse  of  life's  one  great  trust — the  rejection 
of  God's  great  offers  of  salvation;  the  righteousness  and 
finality  of  the  godless  sinner's  doom.  In  fact,  he  dropped 
never  a  whisper  that  looks  toward  a  future  probation — never 
a  whisper  which  can  be  construed  to  imply  that  final  des- 
tiny, based  on  the  moral  decisions  made  by  sinners  in  the 
present  life,  will  lack  any  thing  in  the  point  of  infinite  justice, 
or  will  need  another  and  future  probation  in  order  to  justify 
the  ways  of  God  to  men.  Most  surely  it  must  be  both  safe 
and  wise  to  leave  the  nature  and  the  issues  of  earthly  pro- 
bation where  Jesus  felt  it  safe  and  wise  to  rest  them. 


THEODICY. 

In  its  technical  sense  this  term  ^'theodicy"  proposes  to 
vindicate  the  justice  of  God  in  ordaining  or  permitting  sin 
in  his  universe. It  will  be  readily  seen  that  this  is  thor- 
oughly fundamental  to  any  worthy  discussion  of  the  subject 
of  "Eternal  Hope."  The  whole  vast  problem  of  sin  under 
God's  government  involves  it  and  really  turns  greatly  upon 
it.  All  men,  therefore,  who  think  to  purpose  on  these  ques- 
tions of  sin,  suffering,  punishment,  the  eternal  future  of 
moral  beings,  must  be  reaching  out  with  longing  soul  for 
some  reasonably  satisfactory  scheme  of  theodicy.  Men  of 
candid,  and  reverent  as  well  as  thoughtful  mind,  will  have  a 
deep  sense  of  the  difficulties  and  the  vastness  of  the  themes 
involved  in  the  problem,  and  will  realize  that  if  perfect  re- 
lief from  all  its  difficulties  shall  prove  at  present  unattain- 
able, yet  every  approximation  toward  it  should  be  hailed 
with  welcome. 

The  need  and  propriety  of  discussing  this  subject  will 
perhaps  become  more  apparent  as  the  reader  shall  pass  his 
eye  over  the  following  paragraph  from  Rev.  Thomas  J. 
Sawyer,  speaking  for  modern  Universalism  in  the  North 
American  Review,  March,  1878,  pp.  348,  349: 

"The  Universalist  theology  has  the  advantage  of  ending 
in  a  general  harmony,  while  the  Orthodox  ends  in  an  eternal 
discord;  the  former  in  unity,  the  latter  in  actual  dualism — 


492  THEODICY. 

two  empires,  as  Augustine  taught,  standing  side  by  side;  one 
that  of  Christ,  the  other  that  of  Satan — both  equally  inde- 
structible and  equally  enduring  I  To  be  self-consistent,  this 
system  should  begin  with  dualism,  as  it  ends.  Then  moral 
evil  would  have  an  eternal  ground  and  be  self-existent  as 
goodness  is,  and  be  enthroned  in  Satan  as  goodness  is  in 
God."     ... 

»  "  Has  God,  then,  so  carefully  provided  in  the  laws  of  our 
nature  for  the  eternity  of  sin,  and  thus  for  our  final  damna- 
tion? Let  us  hope  for  the  honor  of  his  name  that  the  moral 
economy  of  the  universe  has  not  been  ordained  by  Infinite 
Wisdom  and  Holiness,  chiefly  in  the  interests  of  evil,  to 
multiply  and  per23etuate  it,  and  finally  to  crown  it  with  im- 
mortality." 

Such  views  suffice  to  press  the  question:  Is  there  not  a 
more  excellent  way — i.  e. ,  a  way  in  far  better  accord  with 
known  facts  and  with  inspiration  ? 

The  very  limited  sjiace  that  can  be  reasonably  given  to 
this  subject  here  will  compel  me  to  the  utmost  brevity ;  and 
for  this  end,  to  a  concise  statement  of  prirciples,  accom- 
panied with  little  or  no  illustration,  and  commonly  with  no 
formal  proof,  leaving  them  to  rest  upon  their  self-evident 
character,  or  at  least  upon  their  very  obvious  relations  and 
bearings. 

1.  This  discussion  assumes  that  God  is  infinitely  wise  and 
good — this  assumption  being  perfectly  legitimate  here  Because 
the  very  point  at  issue  is — How  to  vindicate  the  justice  of 
God,  supposing  him  'to  be  all-wise  and  all-good,  and  yet  to 

have  admitted  sin  and  suffering  into  his  universe. Let  it 

be  noted  that  the  main  difficulties  are  involved  in  his  admis- 
sion of  sin  at  all,  and  are  scarcely  augmented — perhaps  even 
not  at  all — by  its  eternal  duration ; — certainly  are  not  obvi- 
ated by  the  denial  of  such  duration. 

2.  When  God  had  determined  to  create  a  universe  of  mat- 
ter, the  far  more  grave  problem  of  creating  intelligent  moral 
agents  called  for  decision. 

At  this  point  sin  could  have  been  kept  out  of  his  universe, 
for  a  negative  decisicm  would  have  precluded  its  possibility ; 
and  witii  the  exclusion  of  all  sin,  would  have  precluded  all 

suffering  worthy  of  the  name. But  what  a  desolation  of 

negatives,  such  a  universe  must  have  been  ! 

Gn  the  other  hand  an  affirmative  decision  nuist  inevita- 
bly carry  with  it  the  contingency  of  sin  and  its  consequent 
sufferings;  because  a  moral  agent  has  in  his  very  nature  the 


THEODICY.  493 

power  to  sin ;  and  his  using  tins  power  in  actual  sinning 
must  turn  upon  his  own  voluntary  choice. 

3.  To  forestall  here  at  the  outset  the  superficial  yet  not 
infrequent  objection  that  God  could  prevent  all  moral  agents 
from  sinning  if  he  would,  it  ought  to  suffice  to  ask  the  ob- 
jector;— Do  you  admit  that  God  was  thoroughly  honest 
Avhen  through  the  old  prophets  he  cried  in  the  ears  of  men  ; 
"Oh,  do  not  that  abominable  thing  which  I  hate"?  (Jer. 
44:  4).  Or  when  he  declared  upon  his  oath:  *'As  I  live, 
saith  the  Lord  God,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the 
wicked,  but  that  the  wicked  turn  from  his  way  and  live. 
Turn  ye,  turn  ye,  from  your  evil  ways  ;  for  why  will  ye  die"  ? 
(Ezek.  33:  11). 

4.  We  now  come  legitimately  to  the  question:  Upon  what 
conditions  it  is  both  wise  and  benevolent  in  God  to  create 
moral  agents? 

Assuming  his  perfect  foreknowledge  of  all  possible  results, 
we  may  answer:  Not  necessarily  upon  this  sole  condition, 
that  He  could  shut  out  all  sin ;  but  only  that  He  could  con- 
fine it  within  such  limits  and  by  his  overruling  agencies, 
could  educe  so  much  good  from  it;  or  shall  we  say,  from  a 
moral  universe  with  some  sin  in  it — as  would  immensely  en- 
hance the  amount  of  virtue  and  consequent  blessedness  in  his 
moral  kingdom.  These  results  being  foreseen,  both  his  wis- 
dom and  his  love  must  concur  in  his  decision  to  create  moral 
agents. 

5.  To  present  what  is  substantially  the  same  doctrine  in 
more  expanded  form,  let  us  say — 

God  assumed  infinite  responsibilities  when  he  determined 
to  create  moral  agents; 

But,  negatively — did  not  make  himself  responsible  to  shut 
out  all  sin  and  its  consequent  suflfering ; — but  only,  affirma- 
tively, to  do  all  he  wisely  could  to  prevent  it ;  never  to  make 
himself  a  responsible  party  toward  its  commission,  i.  e.,  to- 
ward rebellion  against  his  own  throne ; — also,  to  restrain  it 
within  the  narrowest  limits  possible  to  himself,  using  the  best 
means  at  his  command  for  this  purpose;  and  also  to  educe 
from  it  such  compensating  good  as  would  indefinitely  over- 
balance the  inevitable  evil. 

On  this  exceedingly  vital  point  in  our  discussion,  it  may 
not  be  amiss  to  specify  yet  more  particularly,  that  God  did 
not  assume  the  responsibility  of  coercing  moral  agents  by  any 
such  physical  forces  as  would  override  and  crush  out  their 
moral  freedom; 


494  THEODICY. 

Nor,  again,  for  the  sake  of  abating  or  even  excluding  all 
the  forces  of  temptation,  did  He  make  himself  responsible 
to  annihilate  our  human  sensibilities  because  they  are  sources 
of  temptation  and  therefore  inlets  of  sin ; 

Kor,  again,  for  the  same  purpose  of  abating  temptation, 
did  he  make  himself  responsible  to  rescind  the  social  law  of 
our  nature,  so  that  (e.  </.)  Eve  could  have  been  no  temptation 
to  her  Adam;  for  who  can  measure  the  desolations  that 
must  come  upon  human  souls  with  the  extinction  of  this  so- 
cial law! 

Nor  yet,  again  (in  the  same  line  of  thought),  did  God 
make  himself  responsible  to  put  such  restrictions  upon  this 
social  law  as  would  forever  forbid  all  contact  of  mind  be- 
tween various  orders  of  intelligent  beings  (say,  the  human 
and  the  angelic);  for  though  it  might  seem  very  well  to  shut 
off  Satan  and  his  angels,  yet  who  can  measure  the  possible 
loss  if  under  the  same  restriction,  the  holy  angels  were  to  be 

shut  off  too  ? And  in  our  own  eternal  future,  who  can 

meiisure  the  loss  if  the  redeemed  were  to  be  shut  off  from 
being  witnesses  of  God's  love  to  countless  orders  of  beings 
yet  unborn! 

In  fine,  we  may  perhaps  generalize  these  points  under  this 
comprehensive  principle ;— God,  having  framed  the  laws  of 
our  being  wisely,  even  "creating  man  in  his  own  image," 
did  not  make  himself  responsible  to  subvert  or  essentially 
change  those  laws,  because  under  their  operation,  sin  would 

be  contingent  and  possible. The  reader  will  notice  that 

this  line  of  argument  assumes  it  to  be  wise  in  God  to  man- 
age all  things  under  general  laivs  rather  than  otherwise — i.  e., 
rather  than  under  no  laws  at  all ; — for  surely  this  wisdom  is 
not  far  to  seek. But  on  the  otlier  hand  He  did  make  him- 
self responsible  to  bring  into  existence  the  most  effective  moral 
forces  of  truth,  and  specially,  of  truth  illustrated  and  brought 
within  the  clear  apprehension  of  created  mind;  and  then  to 
ai)})ly  these  forces  in  the  best  way  possible  to  himself  to  se- 
cure obedience  and  its  consequent  blessedness. 

6.  At  this  stage  of  the  discussion  let  us  refresh  our  thought 
with  the  fact  everywhere  taught  and  assumed  in  the  Script- 
ures—that the  moral  forces  available  for  use  upon  moral 
agents  against  sin  and  unto  holiness  are  mainly  compre- 
hended within  these  two;— Illustrated  truth  respecting  (Jod, 
his  moral  government — sin  and  its  consequences  on  the  one 
hand;  and  the  Holy  Sj)irit  Jis  a  divine  Teacher  on  the  other 
— the  latter  never  to  supersede  the  former,  and  never  to  work 


THEODICY.  495 

independently  of  and  apart  from  it,  but  only,  co-ordinately 
Avith  and  through  it,  to  make  its  influence  effective. 

7.  We  now  come  to  a  very  vital  point  in  our  discussion, 
viz.:  The  absolute  necessity  to  finite  minds  of  illustrated  truth, 
revealing  God  to  his  creatures — this  truth  being  of  such  sort 
and  so  illustrated  as  to  become  a  moral  power  against  sin  and 
unto  obedience. 

Under  this  general  head  we  may  profitably  consider  the 
great  ignorance  of  all  created  mind  in  the  infancy  of  its  be- 
ing, in  the  immaturity  of  its  powers  and  the  utter  meager- 
ness  of  its  experience ;  the  very  inadequate  conception  such 
mind  must  have  of  the  invisible  God  and  particularly  of  his 
moral  character  and  claims  until  these  have  been  illustrated 
to  their  finite  capacities  and  brought  to  the  level  of  their 
apprehension  by  appropriate  developments  and  manifesta- 
tions.  In  order   to  see  the  bearing  and  force  of  these 

points,  we  might  consider  the  case  of  our  parents  in  Eden ; 
and  might  also  study  the  moral  ways  of  God  all  down  the 
ages  of  our  world's  history,  remarkably  filled  with  educating 
facts  Hke  the  flood,  Sodom,  Egypt, — almost  countless  visita- 
tions of  retributive  judgment  on  nations  and  men  for  their 
sin ;  and  not  least,  the  far  more  wonderful  manifestations  of 
God  through  the  incarnation  and  work  of  Christ. 

In  the  same  line  of  thought,  it  might  be  inquired  how 
much  (or  rather  how  little)  Satan — supposing  him  to  have 
been  the  first  sinner  in  the  universe — could  have  known  of 
the  awful  consequences  of  sin  before  he  made  the  fearful 
plunge ! 

8.  Beyond  question  we  do  actually  see  that  God's  ways 
in  his  moral  government  are  shaped  for  the  accumulation 
of  moral  forces  by  means  of  these  illustrative  facts,  and  may 
therefore  surely  infer  that  this  shaping  is  done  purposely 
for  the  results  above  suggested,  viz.,  the  accumulation  of 
moral  forces,  to  be  utilized  against  sin  and  unto  holiness. 

Particularly  let  it  be  noted  that  only  two  fallen  races  are 
known  to  us — angels  and  men ;  that  God's  ways  with  these 
races  have  been  not  alike,  but  most  widely  unlike;  that 
while  toward  the  angels  God  moved  on  principles  of  strict, 
unmodified  justice, — toward  men  he  has  moved  in  a  system 
of  blended  justice  and  mercy  ;  that  the  latter  system  could 
not  have  been  (to  our  human  view)  safe  before  the  moral 
universe  without  the  antecedently  forewarning  and  prepara- 
tory influence  of  the  former ;  that  these  two  methods,  taken 
together,  are  exhaustive  of  all  conceivable  methods  of  deal- 


496  THEODICY. 

ing  with  sin,  no  third  method,  unlike  either,  being  even 
supposable; — and  moreover,  it  may  be  added  as  a  side 
remark  that  no  second  redemptive  scheme  analogous  to  this 
by  the  incarnation,  sacrifice,  and  ultimate  exaltation  of  the 
Son  of  God  to  the  supremacy  of  the  universe,  is  even  sup- 
posable. 

9.  To  put  the  bearing  of  these  facts  in  their  true  and  full 
light,  it  may  be  observed  that  thus  far,  experience  has  shown 
that  it   has   been    perilous  to  create  moral   races ;  for  into 

every  such  race  known  to  us,  sin  has  entered. But  over 

against  this  otherwise  appalling  fact,  we  have  for  our  relief 
the  very  manifest  fact  that,  on  a  scale  of  immense  magni- 
tude, God  is  accumulating  and  at  least  preparing  to  utilize 
the  moral  forces  both  of  retribution  for  sin  and  of  divine 
love  and  mercy  toward  sinners  to  reclaim  and  save — all 
manifestly  shaped  to  reveal  God  before  created  minds  in 
such  forms  as  will  develop  in  their  utmost  strength  the 
moral  forces  requisite  to  deter  moral  beings  from  sin 
by  retribution,  and  to  win  them  to  eternal  obedience  by 
love. 

10.  Bearing  upon  the  accumulation  of  moral  forces  from 
the  gospel  scheme  in  our  world,  it  deserves  special  atten- 
tion that  they  are  yet  in  the  infancy  of  their  unfolding; — 
certainly  so  if  there  be  significance  in  the  fact  that  we  are 
taught  and  therefore  authorized  to  pray  in  faith  that  God's 
*'  will  may  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven; "  or  if  there 
be  truth  in  the  prophecy  that  "  the  earth  shall  be  full  of 
the    knowledge  of  the  Lord  as   the  waters  cover  the  sea." 

Which  things  combine  to  show  that  there  is  yet  to  be 

an  immense  augmentation  of  moral  forces,  destined  to  be 
felt  throughout  the  universe — emanating  from  the  successful 
results  of  the  gospel  scheme  in  our  world, 

11.  But  the  grand  epoch  in  the  moral  history  of  the  uni- 
verse will  l)e  the  final  judgment-day — the  point  where  the 
momentous  facts  of  sin,  redemption,  retribution,  are  to  have 
their  supreme  manifestation,  and  wliere  moral  forces  are  to 
be  generated  for  use  throughout  the  eternal  future  of  God's 
kingdom; — in  proof  of  which  the  following  points  have  vital 
bearings : 

(a.)  All  the  moral  beings  then  existing  in  the  universe 
are  to  bo  i)resent,  the  sinning  races  being  there  for  their 
final  trial;  and  all  the  unsinning  as  spectators  of  the  august 
scene. On  these  points  the  Scriptures  are  perfectly  defi- 
nite— that    the   an^i-els  who  fell  are  held  in  chains  under 


THEODICY.  497 

darkness  reserved  to  the  judgment  of  that  day ;  that  the 
entire  human  race  are  to  be  judged  then  and  there  ;  and 
that  then  "the  Son  of  Man  shall  come  in  his  glory  and  all 
the  holy  angels  with  him" — spectators,  learners  of  God,  from 
this  august  assize. 

(h.)  Nothing  can  be  made  more  plain  than  this; — that 
the  one  great  purpose  of  this  judgment-day  is  to  bring  out 
before  the  moral  universe  the  grounds  and  reasons  for  the 
final  doom  of  all  the  wicked,  and  for  the  final  reward  of  all 
the  righteous.  It  is  to  be  God's  supreme,  sublime,  perfect 
vindication  of  his  moral  ways  before  all  then  existing  moral 
beings — ^a  scene  entirely  unique  in  character — such  as  never 
occurred  before;  and  as  the  Scriptures  obviously  assume, 

will  never  occur  again. True,  if  there  w^ere  to  be  another 

probation  for  the  beings  then  finally  judged,  or  another  sin- 
ning race  to  come  under  special  moral  treatment,  then  a 
second  judgment-day  would  become  a  moral  necessity;  but 
the  assumption  throughout  the  Scriptures  of  no  second  judg- 
ment-day carries  with  it  the  exclusion  of  another  probation 
for  beings  judged  then,  and  also  of  any  other  falling  race. 

12.  It  is  not  only  supposable  but  very  highly  probable 
that  from  and  after  this  final  judgment-day,  there  will  be 
such  resources  of  moral  power  available  for  use  in  the  moral 
universe  as  will  make  it  entirely  safe  to  create  moral  races 
onward  and  onward  indefinitely.  So  much  will  be  known 
and  knowable  of  God,  of  his  moral  kingdom,  of  the  folly 
of  sin  and  of  the  ruin  it  brings  on  the  sinner ;  of  the  blessed- 
ness of  obedience  ;  of  the  great  depths  of  God's  love  ;  of  the 
ineffable  glories  of  the  incarnation  and  of  redemption — as 
will  hold  all  the  then  unsinning  in  perfect  obedience,  and  all 
the  new-born  also  in  tlie  eternal  allegiance  of  love  and 
homage  to  God. 

13.  It  is  entirely  supposable,  not  to  say  virtually  certain, 
that  the  creation  of  moral  beings  is  yet  in  its  very  early 
stages. 

In  support  of  this  view,  there  is  not  the  least  occasion  to 
make  an  argument  from  our  ignorance  on  the  ground  that 
we  know  of  but  few  compared  with  the  vast  provision  made 
for  their  accommodation  in  the  known,  visible  worlds  of 
matter. Forbearing  to  make  the  least  use  of  this  argu- 
ment we  rely  upon  the  moral  argument  alone — the  staple 
points  of  which  are : 

(1.)  That  indefinitely  greater  moral  forces  against  sinning 
and  unto  obedience  are  yet  to  be  developed  in  our  world  be- 


498  THEODICY. 

tween  tliis  hour  and  the  final  judgment,  but  far  above  this 
and  especially,  are  to  be  evolved  then  and  by  means  of  that 
august  manifestation  of  God. 

(2.)  That  it  can  not  be  wise  in  God  to  create  moral  races 
on  any  extensive  scale  before  those  moral  forces  are  devel- 
oped into  practical  form,  and  especially  while  God  is  so 
manifestly  accumulating  them  and  preparing  them  to  bear 
effectively  upon  created  minds. 

(3.)  That  having  provided  the  moral  forces — i.  e.,  the 
requisite  facts  and  agencies  for  their  full  development,  it 
must  certainly  be  the  demand  of  love  and  the  province  of 
wisdom  to  use  thefti  and  by  no  means  to  forbear  to  use 
them — inasmuch  as  in  and  by  their  use.  He  can  proceed  to 
multiply  holy  and  happy  beings  indefinitely,  and  thus  en- 
hance the  blessedness   of   his  universe    without  limit  and 

without  peril. Or  to  put  this  point  in  fewest  words; — 

Before  the  requisite  moral  forces  are  developed  for  use  and 
while  yet  in  the  process  of  preparation,  it  could  not  be  wise  to 
create  moral  races  on  any  large  scale ;  but  after  their  full  devel- 
opment, both  wisdom  and  love  must  demand  their  creation. 

14.  As  one  very  strong  point  in  our  scheme  of  Theodicy 
it  assumes — what  the  Scriptures  uniformly  assert — the  eter- 
nal duration  of  punishment  in  the  case  of  both  lost  angels 
and  lost,  unreclaimed  men. 

The  demands  of  justice  are  essentially  of  the  same  nature 
in  the  universal  kingdom  of  God  as  the  demands  of  the 
public  good  in  every  human  civil  government,  viz.,  the  pro- 
duction and  conservation  of  moral  forces  to  bear  against 
transgression  of  wholesome  law  and  unto  the  good  order, 
peace  and  welfare  of  society. 

In  regard  to  the  eternity  of  punishment,  the  problem 
seems  to  be  simply  this: — Adequate  moral  forces  having 
been  produced  at  fearful  cost,  shall  they  be  conserved  or 
extinguished  ?  Shall  they  be  perpetuated  for  the  peace,  the 
purity,  the  highest  blessedness  of  a  universe  filling  up  and 
supposably  to  be  filled  with  moral  beings;  or  shall  they  he 
annihilated — suffered  to  drop  out  of  existence — so  that  in  the 
lapse  of  eternal  ages  the  moral  universe  will  be  left  as  void 
of  tlieir  presence  and  power  as  if  they  had  never  been? 

This  great  question  bears  upon  two  distinct  classes: — one 
of  moral  beings  already  in  existence  before  this  sup})osed 
termination  of  hell  and  its  suflerings:  the  other  of  myriads 
then  unborn,  but  supposably  to  be  subsequently  brought 
into  existence. 


THEODICY.  499 

As  to  the  first  class  the  problem  is  virtually  this: 

Is  the  memory  of  finite  beings  really  infinite — i.  e.,  capa- 
ble of  holding  in  unabated,  never  waning  strength  any  and 
all  impressions,  knowledges,  once  in  the  mind,  but  left  by  the 
utter  lapse  of  their  causes  upon  the  mere  strength  of  memory 
to  hold  them  forever  and  forever? 

The  question  is  not  whether  the  human  memory,  having 
the  help  of  suggestive  facts  continually  present  or  frequently 
recurring,  can  retain  its  impressions  with  no  loss  of  vivid- 
ness and  strength ;  but  is  rather  this : — whether  when 
suggestive,  supporting,  quickening  facts  are  no  longer 
present,  the  memory  can  really  defy  all  lapse  of  time  to 
weaken  its  grasp?  For  if  it  be  admitted  that,  thrown 
upon  its  inherent  powers  with  no  help  from  present  sur- 
roundings, it  must  inevitably  wane  in  power  and  lose  in 
vividness,  then,  the  lapse  of  time  along  the  cycles  of  eternal 
ages  must  certainly  obliterate  its  impressions  and  the  moral 
influence  coming  in  from  the  punishment  of  sin  must  be 
utterly  lost  to  all  minds  in  the  universe  except  God's. 

The  result  will  therefore  be  that,  hell  having  become  ex- 
tinct, the  universe,  outside  of  God,  will  ultimately  become 
as  tliough  hell  had  never  been. 

And  if  retribution  for  sin  is  one  of  the  potent  forces  for 
restraining  moral  agents  from  sinning,  then  sin  may  enter 
again,   and   the   scenes  of  its    retribution    must   be   again 

repeated. That  is  to  say,  the  ultimate  problem   before 

the  divine  mind  was — either  one  eternal  hell ;  or  an  eter- 
nal succession  of  hells  of  limited  duration — with  the  pre- 
ponderance of  moral  power  for  good  and  of  happiness  secured 
immensely  in  favor  of  the  former  and  against  the  latter. 
So  much  in  reference  to  the  case  of  moral  races  whose  exist- 
ence began  before  hell  became  (by  the  supposition)  extinct. 

But  in  reference  to  races  brought  into  being  subsequent 
to  this  supposed  extinction,  the  question  is  in  no  manner 
contingent  upon  an  eternal  memory.  No  good  influence 
from  scenes  of  retribution  transpiring  and  utterly  closing 
before  they  were  born  can  ever  reach  them  with  any  practi- 
cal force.  They  are  virtually  back  where  Satan  and  Adam 
were  when  they  fell;  and  the  fearful  results  of  new  ages 
of  sin — new  races  of  rebels — are  liable,  not  to  say  morally 

certain,   to   be   repeated. Therefore    it    is    not    a    rash, 

unwarranted  conclusion  that  infinite  wisdom  and  love  do 
accept  the  painful  yet  better  alternative  of  one  hell,  as 
enduring    as    sin,    bearing    within   itself  the   moral   forces 


500  THEODICY. 

requisite  for  the  moral  safety  of  the  universe  forever  and 
ever — as  against  the  alternative  of  an  eternal  succession  of 
scenes  of  rebellion  and  of  punishment,  each  limited  in 
duration. 

15.  Bringing  to  a  focus  the  main  points  already  presented, 
"we  reach  the  following  conclusion,  viz.,  That  from  and  after 
the  final  judgment  and  its  eternal  issues  of  retribution  for 
the  wicked  and  the  righteous,  outlying  before  the  intelligent 
universe,  there  will  be  moral  forces  extant,  adequate  to 
hold  sin  in  check  forever  so  that  no  more  beings  then  holy 
shall  ever  sin,  and  no  more  moral  races,  new-born,  shall  ever 
fall.  Consequently  the  number  of  sinners  in  the  universe 
will  liave  reached  its  maximum  and  sin  may  thenceforth  be 
considered  a  stationary  and  not  a  growing  quantity. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  material  universe,  almost  empty  of 
moral  races  is  to  be  filled ;  these  surpassingly  vast  resources 
of  moral  power  are  to  be  utilized  to  the  utmost — this  pro- 
cess of  utilization  providing  benevolent  service  for  all  the 
holy  and  not  least  for  all  the  redeemed — thus  heightening 
their  blessedness  immeasurably — all  which  must  eternally 
swell  the  amount  of  holiness  and  blessedness  in  God's  uni- 
versal kingdom. 

Thus  while  sin  and  its  consequent  woe  are  a  fixed  and 
not  increasing  amount,  holiness  and  its  consequent  blessed- 
ness are  eternally  increasing — the  blessedness,  let  it  be  re- 
membered, increasing  in  a  geometrical  ratio,  this  being  the 
law  of  benevolent  action  and  its  blessedness;  each  one's 
joy  heightening  every  other  one's  joy — the  joy  of  each  be- 
coming the  joy  of  all.  Hence  the  ultimate  result  must  be 
this: — Comparing  the  respective  amounts  of  evil  and  of 
good  in  the  universe — i.  e.,  the  amount  of  sin  and  suffering 
on  the  one  side  and  the  amount  of  holiness  and  blessedness 
on  the  other,  the  former  in  the  course  of  the  eternal  ages 
will  become  relatively  to  the  latter  infinitesimally  small ;  the 

latter  immeasurably  great  and  virtually  infinite. These 

data  being  given,  no  logical  conclusion  can  possibly  be  more 

certain. In   these  results  God  will   be  infinitely  blessed 

in  himself,  and  infinitely  glorified  before  his  intelligent 
universe;  the  justice  no  less  than  the  wisdom  and  the  love 
of  his  moral  system  will  be  gloriously  vindicated  ;  and  his 
creatures  will  never  more  ask  for  a  theodicy  that  will  sat- 
isfy the  utmost  demands  of  their  intelligence  and  of  their 
heart. 


Date  Due 

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